B F 



(p'j^MMA^t^y 



(i 







f^ 



THE 



SEERESS OF PREVORST 

REVELATIONS CONCERNING THE INNER-LIFE OF MAN, 



INTER-DIFFUSION OF A WORLD OF SPIRITS IN 
THE ONE WE INHABIT. 



/ 
COMMUNICATED BY JUSTINUS KERNER;, 

CHIEF PHYSICIAN AT WEINSBERG. 



FROM THE GERMA.N, 

BY MRS. CROWE, 

AUTHOR OF THE ADVENTURES OF SUSAN HOPLEY, MEN AND WOMEN, 
ARISTODEMUS, ETC. ETC. 



LONDON: 

J. C. MOORE, 12, WELLINGTON STREET NORTH, 
STRAND. 



MDCCCXLV. 



^0^ 



EDINBURGH : T. CONSTABLE, PRINTER TO HER MAJESTY. 



ti> 



THE 
REVELATIONS CONCERNING THE INNER-LIFE OF MAN 

ARE 

DEDICATED BY THE AUTHOR 

TO HIS MOST 

WORTHY AND HONOURABLE FRIENDS, 

GOTTHILF HEINRICH v. SCHUBERT 

AND 

JOHANN FRIEDRICH v. MEYER. 



CONTENTS. 









Page 


I^^TRODUCTION, ...... 5 


Native place and early youth. 






31 


Retiring into the inner-life, 






37 


Outcoming of the magnetic condition, 






39 


Appearance in Weinsberg, 






5*2 


Description of the Seeress, 






56 


External nervous system, &c. 






61 


Effects of water and suspension of gravity 






65 


Effects of imponderable substances, 






71 


The human eye. 






73 


Seeing with the pit of the stomach. 






75 


The protecting spirit, 






78 


Prophetic dreams. 






82 


Second-sight, 






85 


Going forth of the spirit. 






88 


Prescribing for disease. 






97 


Cure of the Countess von Maldeghem, 






100 


The different degrees of magnetism. 






107 


The sun-sphere and life-sphere, . 






111 


The spheres. 






]14 


The inner-language. 






124 


Relation of spirit, soul, and body. 






125 


Physical worth. 






126 


Moral worth, 






127 


The spheres themselves, . 






128 


The life-sphere proper. 






133 


Explanation of the sun-sphere. 






135 


Relation of life and sun-sphere, 






139 


Seventh sun-sphere, 






142 



CONTENTS. 



PART SECOND 





X xLxvx kjxy vvyxi x/ 






Page 


Introduction, 


149 


The magnetic man, 






151 


Remarks on ghost-seeing, 






155 


Observations by Eschenmayer, 






165 


Further explanations, 






171 


Belief in spirits grounded in nature, 






183 


On the middle-state, 






185 


Concerning the annexed facts. 






191 


Two facts at Weinsberg, . 






195 


Fact second 






199 


Facts at Weinsberg, 








205 


Second, 








219 


Third, 








225 


Fourth, 








234 


Fifth, 








261 


Seventh, 








291 


Eighth, 








293 


Ninth, 








294 


Tenth, 








296 


Eleventh, 








297 


Twelfth and Thirteenth, . 






299 


Fourteenth and Fifteenth, 






300 


Sixteenth, Seventeenth, and Eighteenth, 






. 302 


Journal of Seeress, 


. - 




. 321 


Conclusion to Facts, 






325 


Death of Seeress, 
ft 






330 




ERRATA. 









P. 109, l. 12, naturally, omit. 

P. 249, for B. and R., read B. and iV. 



TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. 



As, in presenting this curious work to the public, it 
was my object to make a book that should be gene- 
rally accessible, a literal translation became out of 
the question. Besides considerable prolixity, there 
is a great deal of repetition, in the original ; some 
parts would have been found too dry, and others too 
mystical, for the general reader. I have, therefore, 
thought it advisable to make a free translation, giv- 
ing the sum and substance of the book as succinctly 
as I could ; only varying from this plan, where I 
thought a close adherence to the words of the author 
was indispensable. M- 

I apprehend that many of the extraordinary phe- 
nomena recorded by Kerner will not find very gene- 
ral credence in England ; but to the believers in 
clairvoyance, the book will have a deep interest — 
whilst, to the larger class, who are not jQi prepared 
to yield faith to its wonders, I should imagine that 



X TRANSLATORS PREFACE. 

the facts would still be considered well worthy of 
attention, both in a physiological and a psycholo- 
gical point of view. I s^j facts; because I cannot 
conceive the possibility of any candid mind doubting 
the greatest number of them, after reading the book ; 
or of such an one entertaining a suspicion of impos- 
ture, on the part either of physician or patient. 
Indeed, Kerner s well-known character, ought to 
exempt him from such an imputation from any quar- 
ter ; and, for my own part, I reject with horror the 
idea, that in a suffering creature, who lived ever on 
the verge of the grave, so much apparent innocence 
and piety should have been but the cloak to so use- 
less and cruel a deception. 

Nothing is more easy than to set up a cry of im- 
posture. It is a convenient mode of eluding the 
trouble of inquiry, and of stifling facts obnoxious to 
preconceived theories ; but it is a vulgar resource, as 
well as a cowardly one ; though, I am sorry to say, 
in no country does the practice prevail so much as 
in this. 

Ridicule is another weapon easily handled ; but 
what many learned, sensible, and good men of a 
neighbouring nation believe they have ascertained to 
be true, is certainly a very improper subject for its 
exercise. If we cannot also believe, we are at least 
bound to listen with attention to what they have to 



TRANSLATOR S PREFACE. XI 

tell US ; and the candid and inquiring will receive 
the information with respect, if they cannot with 
conviction. 

The sincerity and good faith of Dr. Kerner in this 
affair, has never^ we believe^ been impugned, even 
by the most determined sceptic. He is well known 
in Germany as an exceedingly sensible, amiable, 
and religious man ; and is a lyric poet of consider- 
able eminence. The point of attack, for those who 
seek one, must be his sagacity ; but except the as- 
sailant were one who had had the same opportunities 
for observation and investigation that he had, the 
gratuitous imputation of credulity should be^ at least, 
cautiously received. At the same time, although I 
confess I should be very sorry myself to be one of 
the many who, T am aware, will receive these 
alleged facts with contempt and derision, I do not 
deny that the question, whether the apparitions were 
subjective or objective — projections of the nervous 
system, or actually external appearances — is one 
which can only, if ever, be definitively answered by 
the exhibition of repeated phenomena of the same 
description. Even Kerner himself, however ulti- 
mately convinced, seems long to have doubted ; 
whilst he freely admits the impossibility of absolute 
conviction on the part of those who have never had 



Xll TRANSLATOR S PREFACE. 

any occular testimony that such appearances are 
permitted. 

But, in any case, there are few readers, I should 
think, who will not find the book interesting ; whilst 
the amiable, earnest, and pious spirit in which it is 
written, should, at least, constitute the author's de- 
fence against ridicule or malignity, and be accepted 
as the translator's justification for presenting the 
work to the English public in an accessible form. 



PAET FIRST, 

REVELATIONS CONCERNING THE INNER 
LIFE OF MAN. 



" I thank thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid 
these things from the wise and prudent, and revealed them unto babes." — 
Luke, x., 21. 



THE SEEEESS OF PREVORST. 



EXTRACTS FROM AUTHOR'S PREFACE. 

Upon the truth of her Revelations the Seeress hua 
set the seal of death. Her story is not to be eon- 
founded with those of persons v/ho have only been 
subject to the early and imperfect magnetic condi- 
tions, and still less with those of impostors, of whom 
several have lately been detected, although the adver- 
saries of the Seherin do not scruple to use these 
detections to her disadvantage. The existence of 
one genuine pearl cannot be disproved by the pro- 
duction of a thousand false ones. 

It has been frequently asserted that the extraor- 
dinary magnetic condition of the Seherin is to be 
ascribed to the influence of others. How can we 
answer such an absurd objection ? To those who 
followed and observed throughout the course of these 
phenomena, the assertion is not only false but ridicu- 
lous. 

Neither are her Revelations to be judged as if 
they were portions of a system of philosophy con- 



4 AUTHORS PREFACE. 

structed by an enlightened mind ; they are revelations 
drawn from the intimate contemplation of nature her- 
self, and will therefore frequently be found not only 
in strict conformity with popular belief, but also 
with the opinions of Plato, both of which sprung 
from the same source. It is certainly hard, and we 
cannot wonder at the annoyance it occasions, that a 
weak silly woman should thus disturb the established 
systems of the learned, and revive persuasions that 
it has long been the aim of the wise amongst men to 
eradicate. In this strait, I am acquainted with but 
one consolation — it is that which Paul gives in the 
first Epistle to the Corinthians, chapter i., verses 27, 
28 : — '' 27. But God hath chosen the foolish things 
of the world to confound the wise ; and God hath 
chosen the weak things of the world to confound the 
things which are mighty: 28. And base things of 
the world, and things which are despised, hath God 
chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to 
nought things that are." 



THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 



INTRODUCTION 



DISCLOSURES CONCEJElNINa THE INNER LIFE OF MAN. 

As must every man who, isolating himself from the 
hurry and bustle of external life, to contemplate his 
inner self, you will feel, dear reader, that our inner 
and outer life are not only diflferent, but often in 
flat contradiction of each other. What the outer life 
finds decorous, the inner frequently condemns ; and 
in the midst of the world we are often disquieted by 
a still small yoice that whispers us from within. If 
you examine further, you will feel that this external 
life is the dominion of the brain — the intellect which 
belongs to the world — whilst the inner life dwells in 
the region of the heart, within the sphere of sensi- 
tive life, in the sympathetic and ganglionic system. 
You will further feel, that by virtue of this inner 
life, mankind is bound up in an eternal connexion 
with nature, from which his imperfect external ex- 
istence can only apparently release him. It is true, 
indeed, that this inner life is overshadowed and ob- 
scured to the world-possessed brain ; but still irre- 
pressible and immutable, it lives on, a concealed but 



H THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

vigilant guard on the conduct and economy of the 
outer. Every act and thought, however trifling it 
may now appear^ is by it noted and numbered ; and 
will one day or other appear in bright relief before 
our spiritual eyes, w^hen our bodily ones are for ever 
extinguished. 

You will also feel, that it is this secret unseen con- 
nexion with nature which unites man with the other 
world, and conducts him on his way towards it. 

The more, in the tumult of the world and the 
bustle of existence, this inner life makes itself felt — 
the more the gentle voices within us drown the loud 
music of the world — the greater is our debt to the 
spirit that guides us.* But if thou art carried away 
by the current of worldly life, seeking only what 
belongs to it, believe, dear reader^ that an hour will 
one day come, and God grant it be not thy last ! — 
an hour of sorrow and of tears — an hour when thou 
shalt stand by the death-bed of thy beloved, or from 
the summit of earthly happiness be cast into the 
depths of repentance and of shame, deserted and 
alone — when thy inner life shall rise up before thee, 
embracing thee again within its sphere ; that life 
which, since thy childhood, has been hidden from 
thee, of which thou hast only been visited by glimpses 
in thy dreams — dreams which thou knewest not to 
interpret. 

Beloved, to so many has this befallen ! To so 



* Kerner here alludes to the protecting spirit, to be afterwards 
alluded to. 



INTRODUCTION. 7 

many will it yet, who, dow joyous and with un- 
clouded brows, are wholly engrossed with the inter. 
ests of this world, and devoting all their best facul- 
ties to their advancement ! By the bedside of such 
an one I once stood^ and^, with the death-rattle in his 
throat, he said to me^ " I feel" that my life has passed 
from my brain to the epigastric region ; of my brain 
I have no more consciousness — I no longer feel my 
arms nor my feet ; but I see inexpressible things — 
things which I never believed ; there is another 
world ! " — and so saying, he expired. 

" When by the graves of the just, the flowers we 
have planted as memorials, invite us to a far distant 
world, or when we first see the gulf of death yawn- 
ing for ourselves, then — but, alas ! too late — we are 
seized with a trembling awe at the thoughts of eter- 
nity. Strange presentiments creep round the fail- 
ing heart, and anxious sighs burst from the oppressed 
bosom. But these thoughts are far from us by the 
cradle of infancy, and in the flower of our age, — far 
from us at the marriage feast, in the glittering halls 
of the wealthy, and the joyous circles of Bacchus."* 

And thus once wrote to us a spiritually -minded 
medical friend, after the death of one much honoured 
and beloved : — 

" It was not terror at the sight of death that so 
shook me and incapacitated me for the oflice of a 
physician, nor was it altogether grief for my loss. 
The concussion awakened the inner life within me, 

* From Ennemoser's History of Magnetism. 



8 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

and in despair I was ready to sink into its depths. 
I contemplated with horror the monstrous blindness 
of the soul, the vanity and nothingness of our self- 
knowledge and self-will_, the fearfulness of the inevit- 
able and untractable concatenation of things^ our 
deeds and their consequences — indelible, ineffaceable, 
— fast in the gripe of eternity. Ah ! I should de- 
spair, did I not look for help from God. Beloved, 
it has become clear and evident to me, that there is 
but one mode of deliverance from this bond, this 
chain by which we, blind and bewildered, are dragged 
forward, knowing nothing, neither what we do nor 
the consequences of our actions; that there is a 
kingdom of grace and of love ; and that when we 
stand before the judgment-seat, face to face with 
God, he only can be set free, and reach eternal rest 
and happiness, who is to it reconciled and into it 
received. In God we must live, work, and act, if 
we would not, according to the eternal laws of na- 
ture, have our souls ensnared and plunged into a 
darkness through which no beam of light and joy 
can penetrate. So, beloved, let us love life, yea 
covet life, yet live not for ourselves ; but make our 
peace with God, and through the living God within 
us, do our work. Ah ! it is awful to think that every 
step a man takes is on the brink of a thousand pre- 
cipices/' 

And thus writes to us the well-known philosopher 
Schelling, in the year 1811, on the death of a friend's 
wife, after he had himself experienced a like misfor- 
tune : — 



INTRODUCTION. \) 

" When we form a proper estimate of our present 
life, when we reflect that our situation here is much 
more awful than we are accustomed to consider it, 
since the hand of God conceals from us its real sig- 
nification^ we must look upon those as happy who 
are released from it. Justly considered, they have 
won the victory, whilst we stand yet on the field of 
battle, and are waiting to be set free. The value of 
this life is well denoted by the common proverb, 
that no man should be pronounced happy till he is 
dead. Reflection and inquiry have brought me to 
the conviction, that death, so far from weakening 
our personality, exalts it, since it frees it from so 
many contingencies. Remembrance is but a feeble 
expression to convey the intimate connexion which 
exists betwixt those who are departed and those who 
remain. In our innermost being, we are in strict 
union with the dead ; for in our better part we are 
no other than what they are — spirits. The future 
re-union of accordant souls, who through life have 
had one love, one faith, and one hope, is a thing 
to be confidently relied on, being one of the pro- 
mises of Christianity to be faithfully fulfilled to all, 
however difficult the conception is, even to those 
minds most accustomed to abstract contemplations. 
I am daily more satisfied that, as we might expect, 
there is a mutual dependence betwixt things essen- 
tially personal and things immortal. If more were 
needed to confirm this persuasion in those who think 
and feel rightly, the death of one bound to us by the 
fondest ties of love, is sufficient to set on it the seal 



IQ THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

of conviction. It is when we know that life is fad- 
ing from us, and that for us there is no more pleasure 
in the world, we first begin to live for God. Then, 
when the external world sinks from us^ the inner life 
ascends. It needs no sleep- waking to perceive this 
inner life ; to every man who is not too much en- 
tangled in the world — to him who lilies in it, but is 
not of it — is given an eye to discern it. 

" Look for it in others, and you will need no sleep- 
waking to find it. In how many godly and spirit- 
ually minded men it exists ! How often does it 
dwell in the poor hovel with the Bible and Prayer- 
Book, where guiltless souls suffer sorrow, and the 
morsel of black bread is moistened with tears !" — 

'^ A free untrammelled mind," says Athanasius 
Kirchner, '^ not shackled by its earthly covering, in 
union with God, and remembering its original con- 
dition, enjoys the clearest view of all things, seeing 
them in their essence." 

Thus, you will find, beloved, in the history of 
pious men, how, when in moments of pain and afflic- 
tion, the external world disappeared, they plunged 
into the profoundest depths and innermost sphere of 
their inner life, and revealed to themselves such won- 
ders as have since been made known to us by som- 
nambules. 

Let a few examples suffice us. 

It was in the year 1461, when the Hussites were 
undergoing a cruel persecution, that a pious man, at 
Prague, called Georginus, who was brought to the 
rack, and stretched upon the instrument of torture, 



INTRODUCTION. 1 1 

became, in an extraordinary manner, insensible to 
pain, and to all external sensations, appearing so en- 
tirely lifeless that the executioners took him down, 
and flung him on the earth for dead. After the lapse 
of some hours, however, he came again to himself, 
wondering why his side, feet, and hands, caused 
him so much uneasiness. But when he beheld the 
wounds and scars, the burnt and bloody places on 
his body, and the tools of the executioner, they 
brought to his mind what had happened ; and he re- 
lated a dream that he had had during the torture. 
" I thought," said he, " that I was in a green and 
beautiful meadow, and in the middle of it stood a 
tree, on which grew a great deal of fine fruit ; and 
on the tree were perched many birds, who ate of the 
fruit, whilst they sang melodiously. And amongst 
the birds I beheld a youth, who, with a small rod, 
appeared to •regulate their movements, that none 
should presume too far or get out of his place ; and 
I saw three men, who kept watch over the tree.'* 

He described the appearance and persons of these 
men; and it is a remarkable fact, that six years 
afterwards, the same number of men that he had 
seen in his dream, and answering to the same descrip- 
tion, were appointed to rule over the Church. 

In the year 1 639, a poor widow, called Liicken, who 
was accused of being a witch, and sentenced to the 
rack, at Helmstadt, having been cruelly tortured by 
the screw, was seized with dreadful convulsions, 
spoke high German, and a strange language, and 
then fell asleep on the rack, and appeared to be 



12 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

dead. The circumstance being related to the Juris- 
consult at Helmstadt, she was ordered to be again 
submitted to the torture. Then, protesting she was 
a good Christian, whilst the executioner stretched 
her on the rack, whipt her with rods, and sprinkled 
her with burning brimstone, she fell again fast asleep, 
and could not by any means be awakened. 

In the first of these anecdotes you will perceive how 
the soul, afflicted by the external world, abandons it, 
leaving the body alone for its prey, whilst it flies to 
unite itself to the spirit in the innermost sphere of 
its inner life, where^ as in sleep-waking, the future 
is revealed to it, and it enjoys the wondrous gift of 
prophecy. 

By the second history you will observe how the 
soul, whilst it resigned its body to the tortures of the 
external world, itself took refuge in its home, and 
thence, perhaps, (as happened to our own somnam- 
bule,) spoke the language of that home. 

" It may happen," says a deep-seherin, or clear- 
seer, ^' to a man who is intimately acquainted with 
his inner life, that in proportion as he is disturbed 
by the elements without, his inner-life becomes more 
joyful, and the sensations of the body thus re- 
pressed, are altogether annihilated." 

The history of the martyrs shows how^ in mo- 
ments of the severest anguish from without, they at- 
tained an inward security, by which they endured 
with patience the most cruel tortures, laughed at 
their oppressors, and went to the rack and the pile 
as to a bridal-bed. Thus did John Huss and Jeremy 



INTRODUCTION. 13 

of Prague, whilst their bodies were being consumed 
in the flames, with their latest breath, sing songs of 
praise and thanksgiving. So, as to a feast, went 
Dorothy to the stake. Joyous, and like conquerors, 
the martyrs stood, as if their bodies were no longer 
made of flesh. Where, then, was their soul? It 
was in the light and security within. Similar phe- 
nomena are shown us in the magnetic life, and in 
several histories of the Old and New Testament, as 
well as in the lives of many godly persons — the 
Maid of Orleans, for example. Thus we read in 
Delavergy, an account, extracted from a MS. in the 
Royal Library, of the words spoken by the Maid of 
Orleans on her trial. 

^' When I was thirteen years old, I heard a voice 
in my father's garden at Donremy. It proceeded 
from the side where the church stood, and was suc- 
ceeded by a bright light. At first I was frightened, 
but presently I became aware that it was the voice 
of an angel, who has been ever since my guide and 
instructor. It was Saint Michael. I also saw Saint 
Catherine and Saint Margaret, who admonished me, 
and directed all my proceedings. I could easily dis- 
tinguish by the voice whether it was an angel or a 
saint that spoke to me. They were generally accom- 
panied by a bright light. Their voices are soft and 
sweet. The angels appeared to me with natural 
heads. I have seen them, and do see them with my 
eyes." 

Five years after, as she was keeping the cows, a 
voice said to her that God had pity upon the French 



14 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

people, and that she must go and save them. As 
thereupon she began to weep, the voice bade her go 
to Vaucouleurs, where she would find a captain, who, 
without impediment, would conduct her to the king. 

" Since then,*' said she, " I have done nothing 
but in conformity with these directing revelations 
and apparitions ; and now, during my whole trial, 
I speak only as they prompt me." 

At the siege of Orleans she foretold the capture of 
the city, and that her own blood would be shed ; and 
in reality, on the following day, she was wounded 
by an arrow, which penetrated six inches into her 
shoulder. 

A similar natural somnambule was St. Theresa, 
who was born in the beginning of the 1 6th century, 
and had visions like those of the Maid of Orleans.* 

If we read the history of the saints, we shall find 
innumerable facts bearing testimony to the power of 
the inner life. These legends have been, and still 
are, looked upon as a collection of folly and fanati- 
cism, which is the consequence of the tyrannical pre- 
dominance of the brain over the heart, which, sla- 
vishly imprisoned in the dark dungeon of the breast, 
no longer listens to the child-like voices of antiquity, 
when faith removed mountains, and the thorny path 
was lighted by the light of love. It is extremely 
possible that many of the lives of the saints, and their 
wonders, are exaggerated, and many may not be au- 
thentic. However, that which pious and god-sancti- 

* See Life of St. Theresa, by J. B. A. Borecher. Paris. 1810. 



INTRODUCTION. J 5 

fied men were, and are still in a condition to do, 
stands fast — so fast that the lightning of heaven can- 
not overthrow it. It is a history so deeply graven, 
that neither the raging of the storm, nor the crash of 
a world falling together^ can annihilate it. It is true 
they acted simply, according to our present notions ; 
but even so they found what they sought — peace of 
mind, and all they desired, in God. 

But these wonders of tbe inner life are also known 
to others^ who, from their youth up, have led a tem- 
perate, simple, God-given life, without despising their 
daily duties, but strongly and worthily fulfilling 
them. We are instructed also by certain significant 
dreams, presentiments, and communications from the 
world of spirits ; and also from what is only to be 
learnt by the revelations of the magnetic life. 

We find in the experience of the grandfather of 
the person whose history these pages contain, evi- 
dences of a deep inner life ; though, being endowed 
with a healthy body and lively brain, he attained an 
advanced age ; ascending from the condition of a 
herdsman to that of a wealthy merchant ; but always 
leading a simple, active, God-sanctified life. 

" I was ill," says the old merchant, Johann 
Schmidgall, of Lowenstein, " and believing myself 
about to die, I felt full of joy at the happy lot that 
had fallen to me. I woke as out of a slumber, and 
found myself on a meadow, whose limits I could not 
discern, whereon were many shadowy forms who all 
moved towards the east ; and I felt so light and 
happy, and was so full of expectation and excite- 



16 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

ment, that I hastened in the same direction. As I 
drew nearer, I distinguished a woman holding a ves- 
sel of crystal, which contained a red liquid. Around 
her pressed a multitude of departed souls, and I per- 
ceived, that taking some of this tincture in a silver 
spoon, she distributed it to certain of the shades, 
who then immediately hastened towards the east. 
Many were not accepted, but were waved away by 
the left hand of the woman ; and these forthwith 
disappeared in the distance. At length, it was my 
turn, and joyfully I approached her ; but oh^ horror ! 
I was rejected. 

" How I felt, I will not attempt to describe. It 
was a blessing that I immediately awoke, and I 
thanked God that I was yet upon the earth. 

''' This extraordinary dream was sent me by the 
Lord, that I might be induced to look more deeply 
into my heart, and be cured of the folly of thinking 
myself better than other people ; and also that I 
might learn to rely more entirely on the efficacy of 
the merits of Christy who has redeemed us with his 
precious blood." 

This Johann Schmidgall had for some time ma- 
naged the affairs of a widow, whose circumstances, 
after the death of her husband, did not appear in a 
very prosperous condition ; and having, by his disin- 
terested advice and services, placed . her in a com- 
fortable situation, he began to think it time to look 
after his own advancement. He had procured a good 
situation at Esslingen, having provided his mistress 
with another servant ; so, packing up his trunk, he 



INTRODUCTION. 17 

took leave, and with his stick in his hand departed 
from the door. Slowly he ascended the mountain ; 
he felt afraid^ and was oppressed by an anxiety that 
he could not account for. With every step he ad- 
vanced, this anxiety increased, though in spite of it 
he went on, every now and then, however, feeling 
himself forced to pause and stand still ; till at length 
this uneasiness increased to such a degree, that he 
turned back towards Lbwenstein. Instantly all 
anxiety vanished. " But," thought he, " it would 
be a most extraordinary thing to turn back, when I 
know of no cause for doing so ;" so he determined 
not to mind, but to go to Esslingen, let things be as 
they might. He turned round, and again the anxiety 
recurred. Nevertheless, he went forward till he 
reached a forest called the Gaisholz. Here his un- 
easiness was augmented to the highest degree ; and 
instead of the well known forest and road^, he beheld 
before him a strange country, and an immense, large, 
empty field, in the midst of which stood a man, 
making signs to him to turn back. There was now 
no help for it ; he felt that he must go back ; and as 
soon as his face was turned towards Lowenstein, the 
anxiety and the strange country disappeared together. 
Thoughtfully he returned to the lady's house, and 
setting his stick behind the door, and pretexting an 
excuse for his re-appearance, he gave up all thoughts 
of leaving her. The lady, though astonished, said 
nothing ; neither did the other persons of the house- 
hold, and every thing went on as if he had never 
left it. He quietly took possession of his former 

B 



18 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

situation, wrote to the new servant that he need not 
come, and things resumed their previous train. And 
this was the origin of Schmidgall's fortune. He 
brought this lady's business into a very flourishing 
condition, married her daughter ; and by his example, 
counsel, and conduct^ as well as by his traffic, which 
grew to be very extensive, he became a real blessing 
to the place, and continued so to a great age. 

In these traits of Schmidgall's inner life, you get 
a glimpse of the Protector, so constantly disclosed 
in the sleep-waking condition : in the first instance, 
as a warning and significant dream ; and in the se- 
cond, as a man who, appearing to him in a strange 
country, beckons him to return, at the very moment, 
when probably the path that nature prompted him 
to follow would have led to his unhappiness ; and 
these circumstances occurred to Schmidgall, who was 
never in his life in an excited state, nor ever sufiered 
from any derangement of the nervous system. He 
lived a temperate, even, though active life ; and thus 
his internal perceptions were not obscured by his ex- 
ternal condition. In his eightieth year, when he had 
lived to see forty grand-children, he had still an 
untroubled, cheerful countenance, rosy cheeks and 
shining silver hair, and without a stick, and with his 
little grand-daughter by his side, (she who is the 
subject of this history^) he was wont to wander over 
the highest mountains of the region he inhabited. 
Schmidgall was no contemner of his daily duties ; he 
neither brooded over spiritual things, nor sought after 
them. All he knew was, to maintain the simplicity 



INTRODUCTION. 1 9 

and purity of his original nature, against the pressure 
of the world without ; and he thus preserved in his 
inner life the ever faithful guide. 

One morning, as he arose from his bed more cheer- 
ful than usual, he narrated to his children, that in 
the foregoing night, his blessed wife had appeared to 
him in a dream, more distinctly than anything of the 
sort he ever remembered. She had said something 
to him, but what it was he could not recall. When 
this happened he was in perfect health — but seven 
days afterwards — dead. 

In the same night that Schmidgall had this dream, 
his grand-daughter, who was far away from him, lay 
in sickness and sujQTering for twelve hours, buried in 
the profoundest depths of her inner life — in that con- 
dition of inner wakefulness, which is called magnetic 
sleep waking; then a spirit (whose history will be 
hereafter related,) spoke to her and said, " I know 
not wherefore thy protecting spirit, (this was her 
grandmother, the wife of Schmidgall,) has for seven 
days abandoned thee, and is engaged with something 
of more importance that is occurring in thy family 
— and without her support thou couldst not bear 
with me." 

You will perceive by this anecdote that what hap- 
pens in one instance where the body is diseased, 
takes place in another where it is perfectly healthy ; 
and you may, therefore, beloved, come to this con- 
clusion : that such apparitions are not only seen by 
the sick, are not merely visions of a heat-oppressed 
brain, but are very often actual appearances. In- 



20 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

deed^ we are too much inclined to attribute these 
visions to disease. Too often^ through the world 
and its bustle, is the spirit of man driven from its 
home, finding in its inner dwelling no spot to repose 
in. With so many people, the world draws the 
body, the body the soul, and the soul the spirit, out 
of its sphere, and fastens it to the earth ; and with 
so many is the external life alone familiar : that 
those in whom the spirit holds its natural place are 
no longer considered within the sphere of ordinary 
beings, but are looked upon as something unnatural, 
strange, or accurst. 

" Social life,*' says a deep-seer, " is a tumult in 
which mankind is entangled. If one, however, will 
find a fixed point, and not allow himself to be car- 
ried away, he may observe the course of things as 
they pass by him, judge them, and weigh them. 
Such an one lives in freedom, and learns that which 
no instruction can teach him. What passes without, 
is explained and interpreted by the spirit within. 
But as long as a man has only eyes and ears for 
things external, the inner faculties take no cog- 
nizance of them. All should proceed from within. 
As the Scripture says, " What comes from within 
is good." We must be like Mary. She understood 
not the words of Christ, but she laid them to her 
heart. Had she sought to comprehend them by the 
assistance of external things, she would inevitably 
have interpreted them falsely ; the voice from with- 
in only could teach her their true meaning. There 
lie many deeply-hidden mysteries in nature, and in 



INTRODUCTION. 2 1 

man, of which we know nothing ; because our eyes 
and ears are wholly engrossed with external things, 
and because the sounds from without drown the voice 
from within. 

Oh! wondrous, beloved, is the life of the inner 
world ! by which we live, and have our being ; and 
whence flows our consolation, and our alL But^, 
alas ! it awakens no wonder in us. We should be 
happy, if we would listen to the soft whispers of the 
spirit, and were not deafened to its murmurs by the 
mill-wheel of the world. 

'* When God created the human soul," says Van 
Helmont, '^ he communicated to it essential and 
original knowledge. This soul is the mirror of the 
universe, and is in connexion with all beings* She 
is lighted by a light from within ; but the storms of 
passion, and the multitude of sensuous impressions, 
and the distractions of the world, darken this light, 
whose beams are only shed when it burns alone, and 
all within us is in peace and harmony. If we would 
abstract ourselves from all external influences, and 
follow this light alone, we should find within our- 
selves true and unerring counsel. In this state of 
concentration the soul discriminates between all ob- 
jects to which its observation is directed. It can 
unite itself with them — penetrate their properties — 
and, reaching up to God, through him attain the 
most important truths." 

If we go back into the primitive ages, when men 
dwelt under the dominion of nature, before the inner 
life was stifled by what is called cultivation — in the 



22 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

history of the Old Testament, for example, or even 
now in the East, which was the cradle of mankind — 
we shall find remnants of this inner life exhibited 
by entire races of people — such as, when they are 
observed in individuals here, we are accustomed to 
look upon as symptoms of disease. 

I must here refer^ also, to that inner language, 
which will be presently treated of in these pages. 
It was revealed by this lady in her sleep-waking 
state, and she asserted that the like was in every 
man. Both in writing and speaking, it bore a close 
resemblance to the Eastern tongues ; for the reason, 
that in the language spoken by the children of the 
human family, lies the natural inner, language of 
man ; and from the same source arises the custom of 
reckoning by numbers and characters, which resem- 
ble theirs. 

Even that disclosing of the spirit, in the presence 
of stones and metals, and the susceptibility to mag- 
netic influences^ are found chiefly in men living ac- 
cording to nature — Highlanders and shepherds. 

Where, however, through sorrow and sickness, or 
from a natural hereditary condition of constitution 
(which seems most applicable to our case), the body 
becomes, as it were, dead — then the nerve and its 
spirit, as being that which mediates between the 
mind, soul, and body, steps forth unshackled — and 
then are all the wonders of the inner life fully dis- 
closed to us. 

But oh ! beloved, what an inexpressible consola- 
tion do we here find ! You see that, when the ex~ 



INTRODUCTION. 23 

ternal world, with its sorrow and anguish, consumes 
the body or preys on its vitals — when no star of 
hope, no spark of joy, beams on thee from without, 
then first from within there shines forth an inexpres- 
sibly bright life over which the external world has 
no power — a life which no rack can destroy — whose 
flame the darkness of no dungeon can extinguish — 
which breaks on thee from the profoundest depths 
of nature — which ijinites thee with the world of 
spirits — and in which thou eujoyest a foretaste of 
the bliss in which thine immortal soul will revel 
when once purified from the body. 

This is the rest — this the beatitude — that the 
guiltless sufferer, to whom the world can afibrd no 
more comfort, enjoys from within. It may be 
winter without, but there is spring within his breast; 
and although his body may be stretched upon the 
rack, he the while is reposing on a smiling meadow. 

And may the following pages, dear reader, which 
contain many strange revelations respecting the 
inner life, and the diffusion of a world of spirits 
amongst us, make clear to you that this inner life 
exists in us all, and at all times, and not only in the 
state of sleep- waking. But we do not welcome it, 
nor look within to seek it, nor listen to its whispers, 
nor trouble ourselves to discover their interpretation ; 
because the voices from without cry ever in our ears 
till that moment comes — and oh ! how quickly comes 
it to all — when the external world fades from us ; 
and then, but too late, our spirit reverts to its inner 



24. THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

sphere, and beholds, for the first time, the unsus- 
pected terrors that await it. 

And now, dear reader, I will, in this place, say a 
few words on the existence of that inner life which 
is called the magnetic sleep — a subject which the 
contents of this book will more fully explain. We 
must not call this condition sleep — it is rather a 
state of the most perfect vigilance ; for it is the 
rising of an inward and much brighter sun than that 
which our external eyes behold, and it is lighted by 
a clearer light than our waking life can furnish by 
means of our ideas, conclusions, definitions, and 
systems. It is a condition which resembles the 
primitive state of mankind, when man lived in inti- 
mate connexion with nature, understood her laws, 
and read her in her original type. " Before the 
fall of man," says Van Helmont, '^ the soul had an 
intuitive knowledge, and a prophetic gift of im- 
mense power. These faculties the soul yet possesses ; 
and that they are not perceptible is owing to the 
number of obstacles which are in their way. In 
sleep, especially, we are often visited by this super- 
natural light, because then this inward inspiration is 
not repressed, as in our waking state, by external 
stimulants. Once more arouse this magic power — 
which is especially the case in the magnetic condi- 
tion — and it immediately attains knowledge, and the 
faculty of exerting it externally.'* — 

" This much is certain," says Herder, ^^ that in 
all our faculties there is an infinitude that can here 
never be developed, because it is repressed by other 



INTRODUCTION. 25 

faculties, by our senses and animal instinctSj and is 
bound in the trammels of this earthly life. A few 
examples of foresight and presentiment have dis- 
closed wonders of the treasures which lie hidden in 
the soul of man. That, for the most part, these 
phenomena appear as the result of disease, and of a 
disturbed equipoise of the faculties, does not change 
the nature of the thing, for this disproportion was 
required to give freedom to the force, and exhibit its 
amount." 

In the clearest and highest magnetic condition, 
there is neither seeing, hearing, nor feeling; they 
are superseded by something more than all three 
together — an unerring perception, and the truest 
penetration into our own life and nature. And the 
more simple and the nearer nature the man is in his 
waking state, who falls into this condition, the more 
entirely does his spirit liberate itself from soul and 
body, and the deeper and truer is his self-seeing. 

But this state has also its various degrees and 
differences, as will be hereafter shewn; and it is in 
the highest condition of the inner life that no de- 
ception is possible — especially in that moment when 
the spirit, finding itself released from the soul, the 
very innermost centre is illuminated as by a flash of 
lightning. '^ From that moment/' says a clear-seer, 
" everything resolves itself into an unbounded sea 
of light, in which from infinite bliss I seem to be 
dissolved myself. Every form presents itself to me 
in this lidit — which far exceeds that of the sun— in 



26 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

the most defined and accurate point of view. I 
comprehend everything much more easily and clearly, 
the depths of nature are opened to me, and my view 
of the past and the future, both as regards tim6 and 
space, is like viewing the present ; and is more per- 
fect and defined in proportion to the degree of de- 
velopment the condition has reached. 

Jacob Bohmen calls this crisis that in which '' the 
dawn of morning rises to the centre." However, 
such moments happen rarely, are not alike to all, 
and, to some, are never granted; and, when they 
are, words are often unequal to describe what is 
disclosed. 

" The sleep-seer," says another somnambule, 
" takes his knowledge with him, and finds it aug- 
mented, without, however, becoming omniscient. 
His ignorance accompanies him in his clear-seeing, 
especially at first ; and it depends on God how soon, 
and in what degree, it is got rid of.'* 

Moreover, this state of sleep-waking is not so en- 
tirely liberated from its earthly shell as to be wholly 
free from influences ; and these bright glimpses, as 
already observed, are often only momentary, and 
are quickly obscured by clouds. Nevertheless, the 
veil that separates us from what is heyond^ is always 
in some measure blown away ; and we penetrate, if 
only with earthly and troubled eyes, and by mo- 
mentary gleams, through the chinks of the coffin 
that encloses us, into an ocean of infinite light. 
But assuredly, beloved, this condition of clear- 



INTRODUCTION. 2? 

seeing does not furnish a means by which we can 
approach the state which we must attain before we 
can see God. 

Eschenmayer says truly, " Persons in this condi- 
tion have no merit. Whatever moral or religious 
ideas they may utter, they are no substantial posses- 
sion ; they are only the natural results of a soul freed 
from the load of intellectual life. And thence these 
persons, on awaking, resume their former situation 
as representatives of individual existence, altogether 
unconscious of secrets that have been disclosed to 
them. And here lie» the difference betwixt the sense 
of the beauty of virtue and the merit of its exercise. 
The mere contemplation of the idea of virtue is far 
from the accomplishment of what is good. Yea, my 
beloved, let us beware of information extorted from 
a clear-seer. S. Martin pronounces it dangerous, 
because it frequently unveils the mystery of our 
being before we are prepared for it. '' The hidden 
germ of our being/* says he, " shall be developed 
through the power, the will, and the working of the 
origin of all power ; and, if not, this is exposed to 
great risk, as is frequently seen in the history of som- 
nambules.'* And this, beloved, may also be applic- 
able to the before-mentioned circumstances, where you 
have either a high magnetic condition evidently pre- 
pared by nature, or where, by inordinate and ill-timed 
magnetic operations of various sorts, (as by sympa- 
thy, magic, or the manipulation of different persons) 
you see a human being brought into a condition be- 
twixt a mortal and a spirit ; whereby, if I may so 



28 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

express it, he is kept struggling for years betwixt 
this world and the other, belonging properly to 
neither. How many hours of boundless anxiety this 
condition has, under such circumstances, occasioned 
to happy and credulous hearts, by blowing aside the 
veil from the future — and how I could therefore write 
many lines of its history (as God knows) with my 
best heart's blood — I will not here set down. How- 
ever, let us address to all parents and physicians this 
warning : namely, that in cases of disease magnetic 
operations should only be resorted to in the most 
desperate cases, and as a last resource (especially 
where the condition does not come naturally) ; and 
that even then it is to be used with great caution ; 
and also that the patient, who is subjected to this 
mysterious influence, should be withdrawn from the 
eyes of the curious and calumnious. Moreover, let no 
man stretch forth his hand whose heart is not filled 
with religion and a deep earnestness ; and who is not 
free and unshackled by the world. The magnetiser s 
art is like that of Van Helmont. 

" The God-elected physician," says Yan Helmont r 
" will be accompanied by many signs and wonders for 
the schools ; and whilst he uses his gifts for the alle- 
viation of his neighbours' sufferings, he will refer the 
glory of his cures to God. Pity is his guide. His 
heart will be truth, and his knowledge understand- 
ing. Love will be his sister, and the truth of the 
Lord will enlighten his path. He will call upon the 
grace of God, and the desire of gain shall not pos- 
sess him. For the Lord is rich and a free giver ; 



INTRODUCTION. 29 

and pays back an hundredfold with a heaped -up 
measure. He will make fruitful his work^ and his 
hand shall be clothed in blessings. From his mouth 
shall flow comfort ; and his voice shall be as a trum- 
pet, at the sound of which disease shall vanish. His 
feet shall bring gladness^ and sickness shall dissolve 
before him like the snow in summer. Health shall 
follow his footsteps. These are the promises of the 
Lord to the holy one whom he has chosen : these 
are the blessings reserved for him whose path is the 
path of mercy. Moreover, the Holy Ghost shall 
enlighten him." 

There was a period in ancient times when the 
magnetic condition was known, and where the dili- 
gent application of its operations was used as a re- 
medy, as well as for religious and political purposes, 
especially by means of the laurel and of vapours ;* 
and it was then confined to the temples of the gods as 
a mystery ; not flung to the multitude, nor permitted 
to be handled by unbelievers, deriders, nor dissem- 
blers. 

The sleeper was dealt with in a chamber of the 
temple, in solemn stillness, and generally in the 
night. When he awoke, the priests told him of the 
means he had revealed, and the result. 

But, beloved, in the circumstances of our present 
external life — this vulgar life ! — a man in this condi- 
tion is like a pupa, whose unhappy lot it has been to 



* It is to be noted, that a magnet-stone, a sort of red ochre, 
was generally employed for these purposes. 



30 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

unfold itself into a butterfly amongst a troop of boys. 
Look, how one blows at him, another strikes him, 
and another transfixes him with a needle, till, dis- 
turbed in his development, he slowly expires, but 
half emerged from his shell. And this, my beloved, 
is the picture of an unhappy magnetic life, the most 
remarkable phenomena of which are to be treated of 
in this book. 



THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 



NATIVE PLACE AND EARLY YOUTH. 

In Wirtemberg, near the town of Lowenstein, on 
those mountains whose highest point, the Stocksberg, 
is raised 1879 feet above the level of the sea, sur- 
rounded on all sides by hill and valley, and in a ro- 
mantic seclusion, lies the little village of Prevorst. 
It reckons something more than 400 inhabitants, the 
greatest number of whom maintain themselves by 
wood-cutting, coal-burning, and collecting the pro- 
ductions of the forest. 

As is usually the case with Highlanders, they are 
a strong race of people, and most of them reach a 
considerable age unacquainted with disease. Mala- 
dies common to Lowlanders, as the ague, are here un- 
known ; but nervous derangements frequently appear 
in early youth, — a thing scarcely to have been expect- 
ed amongst so robust a people. Thus it is observed, in 
a place called Neuhiitte, situated, like Prevorst, upon 
the mountains, that a sort of St. Yitus's dance becomes 
epidemic, chiefly amongst young people, so that all 
the children of the place are seized with it at the 
same time. Like persons in a magnetic state, they 
are aware of the precise moment that a fit will seize 
them ; and i? they are in the fields when the par- 



6Z THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

oxysm is approaching, they hasten home^ and imme- 
diately fall into a convulsion, in which condition they 
will move, for an hour or more, with the most sur- 
prising regularity, keeping measure like an accom- 
plished dancer ; after which they frequently awake 
as out of a magnetic sleep, without any recollection 
of what has happened. It is also certain, that these 
ijiountaineers are peculiarly sensible to magnetic in- 
fluences, amongst the evidences of which are their 
susceptibility to sympathetic remedies, and their 
power of discovering springs by means of the divin- 
ing rod. 

In the year 1801, on these mountain heights, in- 
deed in the village of Prevorst, was born a woman, 
who, in her early childhood, gave evidence of an ex- 
traordinary inner life, the phenomena of which are 
to form the subject of these pages. 

Frederica HaufFe, commonly called the Seherin von 
Prevorst, whose father held the situation of game- 
keeper or district forester, was, as the natural conse- 
quence of the secluded situation of the place, brought 
up in a state of the greatest simplicity and artless- 
ness. In the keen mountain air, inured to the long 
winters that often prevail, unenfeebled by luxurious 
clothing or warm beds, she grew up a blooming joy- 
ous child ; and whilst her sisters, whose rearing was 
of the same description, were afflicted in their child- 
hood with gout, nothing of the sort was observed in 
her. But, to counterbalance this immunity, there 
was disclosed, at a very early age, a too evident 
faculty of preternatural anticipation or presentiment, 



EARLY YOUTH. 33 

which was chiefly exhibited in prophetic dreams. 
If she suffered reproof, or felt annoyance^ in 
any way that irritated her mind or affected her 
feelings, she was always, during her nocturnal re- 
pose, conducted into those depths, in which she 
was visited by instructive, premonitory, or prophetic 
visions. 

Thus, on one occasion, when her father had lost, 
some object of value, and threw the blame on her, 
who was innocent, her feelings being thereby aroused, 
in the night the place where the things were appeared 
to her in a dream ; and, in her hands, at a very early 
age, the hazel wand pointed out metals and water. 
At a later period, as few opportunities of mental 
^ cultivation were accessible in this retired spot, her 
parents gladly resigned her to the care of her grand- 
father, Johann Schmidgall, who resided at Lowen- 
stein, a place not far distant. 

However beneficial the simplicity, purity, and 
temperance of her pious grandfather and grand- 
mother were to this easily governed child, yet, with- 
^ out any fault of theirs, but to their extreme regret, 
she became too early acquainted with spiritual and 
supernatural matters ; for there was something in 
the nature of the girl that could no more be kept 
back, than could the growth of her body. 

Old Schmidgall soon observed, that when the 
child accompanied him in his walks through solitary 
places, though she was skipping ever so gaily by 
his side, at certain spots a kind of seriousness and 
shuddering seemed to seize upon her, which, for a 
c 



34 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

long time, he could not comprehend. He also ob- 
served that she experienced the same sensations in 
churchyards, and in churches where there were 
graves ; and that, in such churches, she could never 
remain below, but was obliged to go to the galleries. 

But to the grandfather a still more suspicious cir- 
cumstance than this sensibility to the neighbourhood 
of dead bodies, metals, &c. &c. was the fact, that it 
was accompanied by a consciousness of the presence 
of spirits. 

Thus, there was an apartment in the Castle of 
Lowenstein — an old kitchen — which she could never 
look into or enter without being much disturbed. 
In the very same place, some years afterwards, the 
spectre of a woman was, to her great horror, seen 
by a lady, who had never been informed of the sen- 
sations experienced by the child. 

To the great regret of her family, this sensibility 
to spiritual influences, imperceptible to others, soon 
became too evident ; and the first appearance of a 
spectre to the young girl was in her grandfather s 
house. There, in a passage, at midnight, she beheld 
a tall, dark form, which, passing her with a sigh, 
stood still at the end of the vestibule, turning to- 
wards her features that, in her riper years, she well 
remembered. This first apparition, as was generally 
the case with those she saw in after life, occasioned 
her no apprehension. She calmly looked at it, and 
then, going to her grandfather, told him that ''' there 
was a very strange man in the passage, and that he 
should go and see him;" but the old man, alarmed 



EARLY YOUTH. 35 

at the circumstance — for he also had seen a similar 
apparition in the same place, though he had never 
mentioned it — did all he could to persuade her that 
she was mistaken, and, from that time, never allowed 
her to leave the room at night. 

These serious, but lamentable endowments, how- 
ever, made no difference in the childlike life of the 
young girl : she was the most joyous amongst her 
companions ; although a remarkable sensibility in 
the nerves of the eye, (without the least inflamma- 
tion,) which continued for a whole year, and which 
was, perhaps, the preparation for seeing things in- 
visible to ordinary eyes — a development of the 
spiritual eye within the fleshly — confined her to 
her chamber for a considerable time. 

At a later period, the tedious sickness of her 
parents recalled her to the secluded village of Pre- 
vorst, where, through sorrow and night-watchings by 
the sick-bed, her feelings were kept for a whole year 
in a state of excitement ; and, consequently, pro- 
phetic dreams, and that consciousness of things hid- 
den from persons in a normal state, still continued. 

As she grew older, we find her again in the 
house of her parents at Oberstenfeld, which was for 
a period the official residence of her father ; and 
from her seventeenth to her nineteenth year — during 
which interval she was subjected chieffy to pleasant 
and animating influences — she appeared, in some 
degree, to lock up her inward impressions, and was 
distinguished only by a more than commonly spiri- 
tual character, which spoke from her eyes— and also 



36 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

by greater liveliness — without, however, swerving 
from the usual manners and demeanour of the young 
women of her circle ; and, in spite of all the false- 
hoods that have been propagated on the subject, it 
is positively certain, that even at that age which is' 
most susceptible of such emotions, she never formed 
any attachment, nor ever suffered from disappointed 
affection. 

In compliance with the wishes of her parents and 
connexions, in her nineteenth year an engagement 
was formed betwixt her and Mr. H , who be- 
longed to her uncle's family, which, from the recti- 
tude of the man, and the prospect of certain protec- 
tion, must have been very agreeable to her. But 
whether it was from a presentiment of the years of 
suffering and sickness that awaited her, or whether 
from any other cause which she concealed — that it 
did not arise from disappointed affection is certain — 
she sank at this time into a state of depression, for 
which her friends could in no way account — wept all 
day long under the roof of her parents' house, where 
she concealed herself — did not sleep for five weeks — 
and, in fact, was again absorbed in the overpowering 
life-feeling of her childhood. 

It happened that the funeral of the very worthy 
minister of Oberstenfeld took place on the day of 
her marriage, a man upwards of sixty years of 
age, whose preaching, learning, and personal inter- 
course — ^for he was a model of rectitude — had had 
considerable influence on her life. On the day of 
the burial, she followed the beloved remains to the 



THE INNER-LIFE. 37 

churchyard. However heavy her heart was before, 
at the grave she became light and cheerful. A 
wonderful inner-life was at once awakened in her ; 
she became quite calm, and could scarcely be in- 
duced to quit the grave. At length all tears ceased — 
she was serene^ but^ from this moment^ indifferent^ 
to everything that happened in the world ; and, 
after some indisposition, here began her proper 
inner-life. 

At a later period in her somnambulic state, she 
alluded to this occurrence at a time when the de- 
ceased used often to appear to her as a form of light, 
cheering and protecting her from the influence of an 
evil spirit. 



RETIRING INTO THE INNER-LIFE. 

On the borders of Wirtemberg, towards Baden, 
and belonging partly to that duchy^ and partly to 
that of Hesse, lies a place called KUrnbach, in a low 
and gloomy situation, surrounded by mountains, and^ 
in its atmospherical and geognostic relations, exactly 
the reverse of Prevorst and Oberstenfield, 

Persons very susceptible to electrical influences 
are often cured of their maladies by a change of 
residence ; whilst others of the same description, 
frequently from a like cause, fall into sicknesses 
which the physician cannot account for. Papponi, 
a man spoken of by Amoretti, who was very sus- 
ceptible to electrical influences, and who suffered 



38 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

from convulsions, was cured merely by a change of 
residence. Pennet, a man of the same susceptibility, 
could not go to rest^ in a certain inn in Calabria, till 
he had wrapt himself in an isolating cloak of waxed 
cloth. 

What sinister influences may have been exerted 
on this susceptible being, by her removal to a place 
so extremely different from her former residence — for, 
after her marriage, she lived at Kiirnbach — can- 
not be ascertained. At a later period it was re- 
marked^ that the lower the situation she was in the 
more she was afflicted by spasms ; whilst, on the 
contrary, on the mountains her magnetic condition 
was augmented. 

However, physical influences, at this time, might 
possibly be acting upon her perniciously. Already 
Iiaving ceased to exist for the external world, her 
duties, as the wife of a man engaged in business, 
continually called her back to it, and was thus in 
constant contradiction to her inner-life — her home — 
which she was thus forced to conceal — a dissimula- 
tion which became daily more difficult. For as- 
suredly, from the day she stood upon the grave of 
her old friend, she was more and more absorbed in 
her inner -life, and sunk deeper and deeper into that 
condition at which we must all arrive when, as we 
pass through the gates of death, the external world 
disappears from us — a condition in which dissimula- 
tion becomes altogether impossible. 

" That the external condition is not proper to 
man and to his spirit," says a seer, " appears from 



A HE MAGNETIC CONDITION. 09 

this^ that^ when he is in the world, he converses 
according to the established manners of society; 
whilst, at the same time, the inner -thinking governs 
the external demeanour, whereby it does not over- 
step the limits of propriety and decorum. And 
the same thing is evident from the fact, that, when 
a man reflects, he debates with himself in what 
manner he shall speak and act, so as to ensure re- 
spect, friendship, and favour; and his consequent 
proceedings are very different to what they would 
be if he merely followed the instigations of his will. 
Whence it is clear that the inner state in which the 
spirit is placed, is its proper state ; and also the pro - 
per state of man whilst he lives in the world.'* 

For seven months, however, Mrs. H con- 
tinued to conform to the customs and ways of 
ordinary existence ; but even then, whenever cir- 
cumstances permitted, she would fly to solitude in 
order to retire into herself; but longer than this she 
found it impossible to conceal her internal life, and 
substitute for it the semblance of an external one, 
which, in reality, did not exist ; her body sank 
beneath the effort, and her spirit escaped into its 
inner sphere. 



THE OUTCOMING OF THE MAGNETIC CONDITION, AND 
SKETCH OF A FURTHER PERIOD OF SUFFERING. 

It was on the 13th of February 1822 that Mrs. 
H , being at the time in her own house, had an 



40 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

extraordinary dream. She thought that she was 
about to lie down in her bed, when she perceived the 
body of that dear friend by whose grave her inner- 
life had been kindled, stretched upon it in a shroud. 
Without, in another room, she heard the voice of her 
father and that of two physicians, one of whom only 
was known to her, who were holding a consultation 
on some severe illness which had attacked her. She 
cried out — '^ Leave me alone by this dead man ! — he 
will cure me ! — no physician can !" Then it ap- 
peared to her that they sought to force her from the 
body ; but the chill of the dead seemed healthful to 
her, and, from that alone, she received benefit. She 
spoke aloud in her dream : " How well I am near 
this corpse ; now, I shall quite recover." At that 
time, however, she was not sick. Her husband, 
hearing her talk in this manner in her sleep, awoke 
her. On the following morning she was attacked 
by a fever, that continued for fourteen days with 
the greatest violence, and which was followed by 
seven years of magnetic life, interrupted only by 
short, and merely apparent, intervals. As my per- 
sonal observation only embraced the sixth and 
seventh of these years, of the preceding ones I can 
only give such a superficial sketch as I received from 

the lips of Mrs. H herself, her husband, and 

other connexions. 

After that fever, she was attacked, on the night of 
the 27th of February, at one o'clock, by severe 
spasms in the breast. She was rubbed and brushed 
till her back bled ; and, as she lay without conscious- 



THE MAGNETIC CONDITION* 41 

ness, the surgeons of the place opened a vein. The 
spasms continuing three days, the bleeding was 
repeated. 

On the second day, a peasant's wife, uncalled for, 
came from the village, and, seating herself beside 
her, said — " She needs no physician — they cannot 
help her;'* and laid her hand on her forehead* 
Immediately she was seized with the most direful 
spasms, and her forehead was as cold as if she were 
dead. During the whole night she cried deliriously 
that that woman had exercised a demoniacal influ- 
ence upon her ; and, whenever the woman returned, 
she was always attacked by spasms. On the third 
day they sent to Bretten for a physician ; and being 
then in a magnetic condition, she cried to him when 
he entered, although she had never seen him — " If 
you are a physician, you must help me !" He, well 
understanding her malady, laid his hands on her 
head ; and it was then remarked that, as long as he 
remained in the room, she saw and heard him alone, 
and was insensible to the presence of all other 
persons. 

After he had laid his hands on her she became 
calm, and slept for some hours. Some internal 
remedies and a bath were prescribed for her, but 
the spasms returned in the night, and, for eighteen 
weeks, she was attacked by them from twice to five 
or six times a-day. 

At the same time that she was attacked by these 
spasms, her grandmother, of Lowenstein, appeared 
to her at night, standing by her bedside, and silently 



42 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

looking at her. Three days after she was informed 
of the death of that lady, who had expired on that 
very night. From that time, she frequently in her 
sleep alluded to the presence of her grandmother, 
and she afterwards recognized her as her protecting 
spirit. It was at this period, also, that, in a dream, 
she described some machine, and the mode of its 
construction, which was to be the instrument of her 
restoration ; she drew the figure of it upon paper, 
but no attention was paid to this intimation. 

All the remedies that were tried proving ineffica- 
cious, the physician had recourse to magnetic passes, 
which for a time relieved the spasms. Whereupon 
slanderous reports were circulated by people who 
took a prejudiced view of her case, and who had 
heard that in her agony she frequently called aloud 
for this man, and that he alone could give her relief. 
She was informed of this circumstance ; but, strong 
in her innocence, she listened to it with unconcern, 
as she did afterwards to the ill-natured gossip of her 
own sex, and all the scandal of which the world made 
her the victim. 

On one occasion, when she was suffering from se- 
vere spasms, the maid-servant relieved her by breath- 
ing for an hour on the pit of her stomach. 

As she was now in a decidedly magnetic state, it 
is probable that a regular course of magnetic treat- 
ment might have been beneficial to her ; and indeed 
her physician advised it ; but he resided too far from 
her to carry this counsel into execution himself ; and 
her husband could not bring himself to consent to 



THE MAGNETIC CONDITION. 43 

her leaving home. Homoeopathic treatment was 
then for some time resorted to with success; and 
soon afterwards she found herself for the first time 
in the family way — a circumstance from which great 
hopes of benefit to her health were entertained. 

During the period that she was enceinte^ the dream 
that she had had some time before was fulfilled. 
Whilst she lay ill with spasms, she heard her father 
in the adjoining chamber speaking to two physicians, 
the voice of one of whom only she recognized. About 
this time, she paid a visit to her parents, and took a 
great many baths at Lowenstein, which appeared to 
strengthen her ; and, in the month of February 1823, 
after much sufiering, she was delivered of a child. 
Her confinement was followed by long and severe 
illness ; and the woman who, on a former occasion, 
had produced so injurious an efiect upon her, having 
brought the infant some milk, and insisted on admin- 
istering it herself, the child was seized with spasms, 
and from that time was afi*ected by periodical con- 
vulsions of the limbs until its death, which took place 
in August ; after which the mother again visited the 
baths of Lowenstein, but returned home little bene- 
fited, and in very low spirits. 

In February 1 824, she received a visit from some 
friends, and there was much dancing and merriment 
in the house ; she, however, continued sad, and when 
all was quiet, she was found at prayers by one of the 
company, who laughed at her piety. Whereupon, 
she was so much afi'ected, that she became as cold 
and stifi* as a corpse. For a long time no respiration 



44 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

was perceptible ; at length there was a rattling in 
her throat. Baths and other remedies were applied, 
and she revived, but only to continued suffering. 
She always lay as in a dream. 

At one time, she spoke for three days only in verse; 
and at another, she saw for the same period nothing 
but a ball of fire, that ran through her whole body 
as if on thin bright threads. Then for three days 
she felt as if water was falling on her head, drop by 
drop ; and it was at this time that she first saw her 
own image. She saw it clad in white, seated on a 
stool, whilst she was lying in bed. She contemplated 
the vision for some time, and would have cried out, 
but could not. At length she made herself heard, 
and on the entrance of her husband it disappeared. 

Her susceptibility was now so great, that she heard 
and felt what happened at a distance ; and was so 
sensible to magnetic influences, that the nails in the 
walls annoyed her, and they were obliged to remove 
them. Neither could she endure any light. 

As nothing seemed to be of service to her, her 
friends were induced to try a remedy recommended 
by a boy in a magnetic trance ; the effect was that 
she became more magnetic, but calmer. Still she 
could not endure the light of day, and on being re- 
moved to Oberstenfeld in a close carriage, and arriv- 
ing there three hours before night fall, she was 
obliged to wait till it was dark before she could enter 
the house. 

She was now placed under the care of Dr. B., 
suffering dreadful spasms and anxieties ; she existed 



THE MAGNETIC CONDITION. 45 

only through the nervous emanations of others, and 
it became necessary that some one should always hold 
her hand ; and if the person was weak, it increased 
her debility. The physician prescribed magnetic 
passes and medicines ; but she fell into the magnetic 
sleep, and prescribed for herself. Her greatest suf- 
fering arose from the sensation of having a stone in 
her head ; it seemed as if her brain was compressed, 
and at every breath she drew, the motion pained her. 
This sensation disturbed her sleep, which lasted only 
as long as a hand was laid on her forehead. At this 
time an experiment was made by applying a magnet 
to her forehead ; immediately her head and face were 
turned rounds and her mouth was distorted^ as by a 
stroke of palsy. These symptoms continued two days, 
after which they disappeared of themselves. 

About this time, for seven days, at seven o'clock 
in the evening, she felt she was magnetized by a 
spirit, which was visible only to herself. In this 
spirit she recognized her grandmother, who magne- 
tized her with three fingers outspread like rays, the 
passes being directed to the epigastric region. It is 
an incomprehensible circumstance, though believed 
by many trustworthy persons, that during this period, 
articles whose near neighbourhood to her was inju- 
rious, were removed by an unseen hand ; such objects, 
— a silver spoon, for example, — would be perceptibly 
conveyed from her hand to a more convenient dis- 
tance, and laid on a plate ; not thrown, for the things 
passed slowly through the air, as lifted by invisible 
agency. 



46* THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

When in deep sleep, she now declared that magne- 
tism alone could save her. 

It was about this period that, for the first time, 
she began to see another person behind the one she 
was looking at. Thus, behind her youngest sister 
she saw her deceased brother, Henry ; and behind a 
female friend, she saw the ghostly form of an old 
woman, whom she had known in her childhood at 
Lbwenstein. 

After this, a course of magnetic treatment was 
prescribed by her uncle, and followed up by Dr. 

B , at first without success. She seemed, indeed, 

unable to endure the presence of her magnetiser, who 
was frequently obliged to quit the room. At length 
this dislike subsided— her strength improved — she 
took long walks, and occupied herself with ordinary 
feminine occupations ; though she was still in a mag- 
netic state, and slept every seven days — at a later 
period, every seven weeks. For long intervals she 
was only in a half- waking state ; though she would 
walk out in the snow and rain, and preferred being 
in the cold. She was extremely susceptible to all 
sorts of spiritual influences : prophetic dreams, divi- 
nations, and prophetic visions in glass and mirrors, 
gave evidence of her inner-life. Thus, in a glass of 
water that stood upon the table, she saw some per- 
sons, who, half an hour afterwards, entered the room. 
She also saw, in the same manner, a carriage tra- 
velling on the road to B , which was not visible 

from where she was. She described the vehicle, the 
persons that were in it, the horses, &c. ; and in half 



INCREASED SUFFERINGS, ETC. 47 

an hour afterwards this equipage arrived at the house. 
At this time she seemed also endued with the second 
sight. One morning, on leaving the room during the 
visit of her physician, she saw a cofl&n standing in 
the hall, which impeded her way ; in it lay the body 
of her paternal grandfather. She returned, and bade 
her parents and physician come out and see it ; but 
they could see nothing, nor, at that time, she either. 
On the following morning the coffin, with the body 
in it, was standing by her bed- side. Six weeks after- 
wards the grandfather died, having been in perfect 
health until a few days of his death. 

The gift of ghost-seeing, which Mrs. H* had 

from her childhood, was, in the meantime, constantly 
developing itself. The two most remarkable histo- 
ries, relating to the period in question, will be found 
in the second part of this volume. 



INCREASED SUFFERINGS, AND DEEPENING OF THE MAG- 
NETIC CONDITIONS. 

A second confinement, which took place on the 
28th of December, was followed by a fever, during 

which Mrs. H was delirious, and fancied herself 

lying in an immense church ; spasms, and an aggra- 
vated magnetic condition ensued. Ordinary reme- 
dies proving inefficacious, magnetic passes were again 
tried, and her brother was usually the operator ; but, 
in his absence, several other persons were induced, 
at the request of her distressed parents, to undertake 



48 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

the office : a thing not only, unfortunately, injurious 
to her reputation, but, from the different nervous 
temperaments of these people, to her health also ; 
for it brought her into a deeper magnetic condition, 
and, at the same time, rendered her from habit more 
dependent on the nervous energy of others. A more 
judicious treatment might have rescued this unhappy 
lady from much suffering and misrepresentation. 

It is remarkable that her infant, especially during 
the first week of his life, always slept in the attitude 
she assumed in her magnetic sleep — namely, with 
his arms and feet crossed. It will be seen after- 
wards that he also was endowed with the unhappy 
gift of ghost-seeing. 

A friend, who was often about her at this period, 
writes me, — '^ Whenever I place my finger on her 
forehead, between the eyebrows, she always says 
something that has relation to me and the state of 
my soul, as the following :- — 

" When thou enterest into the tumult of the 
world, hold the Lord fast in thy heart :' 

" If any one would lead thee to err against thy 
conscience, flee unto the Lord : " 

" Let not the light that is in thee be extinguished," 
&c. &c. 

Her spasms, somnambulism, &c., still continuing, 
the people about her, unable to comprehend her 
situation, became weary and disgusted; she grew 
worse and worse — she was attacked by night-sweats 
and diarrhoea; and they reproached her that, in 
spite of all this, she still lived. They exerted force 



INCREASED SUFFERINGS, ETC. 49 

to make her sit up, but in vain ; and they obliged 
her to get out of bed, but she fell to the ground 
without consciousness. Then they began to suspect 
that her illness was the effect of demoniacal influ- 
ence, and they had recourse to a man who had a 
reputation for performing cures by sympathetic 
means. Upon this, people accused the family of 

Mrs. H of being gloomy and unbelieving, be- 

cause they had recourse to such aid. But do not 
the most cultivated and learned men the same? 
Have not many diseases been cured by sympathetic 
means ? and did not celebrated physicians frequently 

send patients they found incurable to Mrs. H ? 

This man gave her a green powder, which she ob- 
jected to take ; but they forced her to do so. On 
her taking it a second time, she became immediately 
able to stand ; but she ran about quite rigidly ; and, 
after a few steps, ran round in a circle, as if in a fit 
of St. Yitus*s dance. 

She was now never thoroughly awake ; her voice 
was shrill ; she spoke high German, and a strange 
language, which she also wrote, and which she called 
her inner tongue, of which we shall speak further by 
and by. When she spoke this language she was in a 
half-waking state ; and when she wished to speak in 
the ordinary manner, she made some magnetic 
passes on herself. With the powder, the man sent 
an amulet of black lead, which hung to a triple 
thread. Every Friday a message was sent to the 
man, according to his desire, although it took seven 
hours to reach him. She said in her sleep — ^* He 
p 



50 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

wants me to request him to come himself ; and^ if it 
be not done, he will stick needles into certain plants 
in his cellar, whereby I shall become more subject to 
him, and suffer more anxiety and uneasiness. I 
must write to him myself ! " This she did in her 
sleep ; the letter was sent, and the man came. He 
had a dark, rough, repelling aspect, with bright bull- 
like eyes. When he arrived, she was lying in a 
magnetic sleep ; and she explained, that he must not 
enter the room until he had said — ^' I believe that 
Jesus Christ was the true Son of God, begot by the 
Father in eternity." He did so, and then he was 
allowed to enter; but she did not speak to him. 
She begged that, when she awoke, they would take 
care that he did not take her hand, which he would 
desire to do ; but begged them not to speak to him 
on the subject, as he would be offended. They did 
their utmost to prevent it, but without success : he 
took her hand, and, on the instant, it became bent 
and contracted in the most frightful manner; and 
they could not restore it to its natural state, either 
by blowing or magnetizing. She then became som- 
nambulic, and said that they must dip the hand in 
running water, and afterwards wash it in warm wine. 
They did so, and the contraction disappeared. 

Though the powder made her more magnetic, she 
continued to take it in very small doses, lest, as she 
said, the man should bring mischief on her. Strange 
to say, at this time, the amulet that he gave her 
would occasionally, of its own accord, untouched by 
any one, run about her head, breast, and bed-cover- 



INCREASED SUFFERINGS, ETC. 51 

ing, like a living thing, so that they had to pick it 
up from the floor and restore it to her. This in- 
credible circumstance happened in the presence of 
many trustworthy witnesses, who testify to the fact. 
She wore this amulet on her back for a quarter of a 
year. When she was committed to my care, I ex- 
amined it, and found it to contain asafoetida, sabina, 
cyanus, two stramonium seeds, a small magnet, and 
a piece of paper, on which was written these words — 
" The Son of God came to destroy the works of the 
devil!" 

Hearing of her long sickness, her parents wrote 
to request her husband to fetch her to Kiirnbach. 
She was averse to the journey, but consented in 
order to relieve her parents' fatigue ; but the con- 
sequences were severe illness, and they were at 
length obliged to bring her back ; on this occasion, 
small doses of opium were found useful. 

She was now attacked by an excessive irritability 
of the nerves of the stomach ; and unless food were 
administered every minute, she fell into an alarming 
state of weakness. Medicine afforded her but little, 
relief; and, on account of the distance of the phy- 
sician's residence, they were obliged to bring her to 
her uncle at Lowenstein. Here she slept every 
evening, and prescribed for herself; but no more 
confidence being placed in her prescriptions, they 
were not followed. It was at this time I was called 
in to her. I had never seen her, but I had heard 
many false and perverted accounts of her ; and I 
must confess that I shared the world's opinions^ and 



52 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

gave credit to its lies. I therefore desired that no 
notice whatever should be taken of her magnetic 
state, nor of her directions to treat her magnetically, 
and place her in relation with people of strong 
nervous temperament; — in short, I desired that 
every thing should be done to draw her out of the 
magnetic condition — that she should be treated care- 
fully, but by ordinary medical means. 

My friend, Dr Off, of Lbwenstein, agreed with 
me in opinion, and we commenced a regular course 
of treatment ; but we were disappointed. Dysentery, 
spasms, night-sweats, still continued ; her gums be- 
came scorbutic, bled constantly, and she lost all her 
teeth. By giving her tonics, a feeling was induced 
as if she was lifted into the air; she was afraid of 
everybody, and at night was often attacked by a 
death-like debility. 

Her friends hoped to exorcise the demoniacal in- 
fluence by prayer. From that time every thing be- 
came indifferent to her — she was as if hardened. 
Her death would have been a blessing ; she suffered 
martyrdom, but died not. Her friends were in the 
greatest grief and perplexity; and, fortunately, 
though much against my will, they brought her to 
Weinsberg to see if anything could be done for her 
there. 



HER APPEARANCE IN WEINSBERG. 

Mrs, H — — arrived at Weinsberg, on the 25th 
November 1826, a picture of death — wasted to a 



APPEARANCE IN WEINSBERG. 53 

skeleton, and unable to rise or to lie down without 
assistance. Every three or four minutes it was 
necessary to give her a spoonful of broth, which she 
often could not swallow, but spat out again ; yet^ 
without it she fainted, or had spasms. She had 
many frightful symptoms^ and fell into a magnetic 
trance every evening at seven o'clock. This used 
to begin with crossing her arms, and prayer. Then 
she would stretch them out ; and, when she after- 
wards laid them on the bed, began to talk, her eyes 
being shut^ and her face lighted up. On the even- 
ing of her arrival, when asleep, she asked for me ; 
but I sent her word that I could only see her when 
she was awake. When she awoke I went to her, 
and declared, shortly and seriously, that I was de- 
termined to take no notice of what she said in her 
sleep, nor would I be even informed of it ; and that 
this somnambulic state, which had caused her friends 
so much unhappiness, must come to an end. I ac- 
companied this declaration with some very strong 
expressions, for it was my firm resolution to treat 
her case by purely medicinal means. I desired that 
no notice whatever should be taken of her when she 
lay in a sleep- waking state, and commenced a regu- 
lar course of homoeopathic remedies. But the very 
smallest doses of medicine always produced in her 
effects the reverse of what I expected; she was 
attacked by many alarming symptoms, and it ap- 
peared probable that her end was approaching; and for 
this result her friends were fully prepared. In short, 
it was too late for the plan I proposed to be of any 



54 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

service to her. Owing to the operation of so many 
different kinds of magnetic influence, her nervous 
system was brought into so unusual and abnormal 
a condition, that she could no longer exist by her 
own nervous energy, but only by that borrowed 
from other people; as, in a short time, it became evi- 
dent that she did. It was affecting to see with what 
earnestness, when she was asleep, she sought the 
means of her own cure; and the physician might 
blush to see how much more efficacious means she 
prescribed for herself, than he and his pharmacopoeia 
could furnish. 

Thus, when I had for some weeks pursued my 
proposed medicinal treatment, I asked her, when 
asleep, whether a constant and regular course of 
magnetism would be of use to her ? She said, that 
she could not answer till the next evening, at seven 
o'clock^ after she had had seven magnetic passes. 
As I was determined to avoid having anything to do 
with her magnetic relations, I employed a friend to 
make the passes ; and the result was, that sh^ said 
a gentle course of magnetism, continued for seven 
days^ would help to restore her. 

The consequence of the seven passes was, that, to 
her own astonishment — for she knew nothing of what 
had been done — she could sit up in bed on the fol- 
lowing morning, and felt stronger than she had done 
during the whole of my medical attendance. For 
twenty-seven days, therefore, a regular course of 
magnetism was followed up, and her own sleep- 
i^aking directions strictly attended to, all others be- 



APPEARANCE IN WEINSBERG. 55 

ing laid aside ; and although restoration to health 
was no longer possible, and many distressing symp- 
toms were often present, yet, by these means, this 
unfortunate lady was as much relieved as the nature 
of her case rendered practicable ; but the shock she 
received, from the death of her father, entirely coun- 
teracted this beneficial influence, and, for the future, 
all that remained to her was the life of a sylph. 

The events of this incorporeal life — many intima* 
tions respecting the inner-life of man, and of the 
existence of a world of spirits amongst us — together 
with what we can recall of the time when our 
Psyche, freed from the earth that was about her, 
unfolded her wings, to fly unchecked through time 
and space — are to form the contents of this book. I 
give mere facts, and leave the explanation of them 
to others. 

There have been theories enough advanced to ac- 
count for these phenomena. They are all known to 
me ; but I must be allowed to accept none of them. 
I shall only seek to shew, by various examples 
of similar apparitions, that the revelations of this 
sleep-waking patient discovered nothing but what is 
founded in nature, and had frequently been observed 
before. But such visions rarely pierce the thick en- 
velope of ordinary life, and are but lightning glimpses 
of a higher region. 



56 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 



A DESCRIPTION OF THIS LADY. 

Long before the commencement of my magnetic 

treatment, Mrs. H was so entirely somnambulic 

that, as we were afterwards convinced, her waking 
state was only apparent. Doubtless^ she was then 
much more really awake than other people ; for this 
condition, although it is not called so, is that of the 
most perfect vigilance. 

In this state she had no organic strength, but de- 
pended wholly on that of other people, which she 
received chiefly through the eyes and the ends of the 
fingers. She said that she drew her life wholly from 
the air, and the nervous emanations of others, by 
which they lost nothing ; but it is not superfluous to 
mention, that many persons said that they did lose 
strength by being long in proximity to her, and that 
they felt a contraction in the limbs, a tremor, &c. &c. 
Many persons also, when near her, were sensible of 
a weakness in the eyes and at the pit of the stomach, 
even to fainting; and she admitted that she gained 
most strength from the eyes of powerful men. 

From her own relations she extracted more vigour 
than from others ; and, as she grew weaker, from 
them only she derived benefit. By the proximity of 
weak and sickly people, she grew weaker, just as 
flowers lose their beauty, and perish, under the same 
circumstances. She also drew nourishment from the 



DESCRIPTION OF THE SEERESS. 57 

air^ and^ even in the coldest weather, could not live 
without an open window. 

She was sensible of the spiritual essences of all 
things, of which we have no perception ; especially 
of metals, plants, men, and animals. All impon- 
derable matters, even the different colours of the 
prism, produced on her sensible effects. She was 
susceptible of electric influences, of which we are 
not conscious ; and, what is almost incredible, she 
had a preternatural feeling, or consciousness, of hu- 
man writing. 

From her eyes there shone a really spiritual light, 
of which every one who saw her became immediately 
sensible ; and, whilst in this state, she was more a 
spirit than a being of mortal mould. Should we 
compare her to a human being, we should rather say 
that she was in the state of one who, hovering be- 
tween life and death, belonged rather to the world 
he was about to visit, than the one he was going to 
leave. 

This is not merely a poetical expression, but lite- 
rally true. We know that men, in the moment of 
death, have often glimpses of the other world, and 
evince their knowledge of it. We see that a spirit 
partially leaves the body, before it has wholly shaken 
off its earthly husk. Could we thus maintain any 
one for years in the condition of a dying person, we 

should have the exact representation of Mrs. H *s 

condition. And this is not the language of fiction, 
but of simple truth. 

She was frequently in that state in which persons, 



58 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

who, like her, have had the faculty of ghost-seeing, 
perceive their own spirit out of their body, which 
only enfolds it as a thin gauze. She often saw her- 
self out of her body, and sometimes double. She said, 
" It often appears to me that I am out of my body, 
and then I hover over it, and think of it ; but this 
is not a pleasant feeling, because I recognize my body. 
But if my soul were bound more closely to my nerve- 
spirit, then would this be in closer union with my 
nerves ; but the bonds of my nerve-spirit are be- 
coming daily weaker." 

It appeared, indeed^ as if her nerve-spirit was so 
loosely connected with her nerves, that, on the slight- 
est movement, it set itself free ; whence she saw 
herself out of her body, or double ; and her body had 
also lost all feeling of weight. 

Mrs. H had neither accomplishment or arti- 
ficial cultivation. She had been taught no language ; 
and knew nothing of history, geography, natural 
history, nor had any of those acquirements so com- 
mon to her sex. During her long years of sufiering, 
the Bible and Psalm-book were her only studies. 
Her moral character was blameless. She was pious 
without hypocrisy ; and even her long sufifering, and 
the strange nature of it, she looked upon as from the 
grace of God, and frequently expressed these feelings 
in verse. 

Because I sometimes made verses, people chose to 
say that I had communicated this talent to her by 
my magnetic influence ; but she spoke in verse before 
I attended her; and it was not without a deep sig- 



DESCRIPTION OF THE SEERESS. 59 

nificance that Apollo was called the god of the phy- 
sician, the poet, and the prophet. Sleep-waking 
giv^es the power to prophecy, to heal, and to compose 
rerses. How well did the ancients understand the 
magnetic state ! How clearly do we discover it in 
their mysteries ! The great physician, Galen, was 
indebted to his nightly dreams for much of his medi- 
cal science. I am acquainted with a peasant girl 
who does not know how to write, and who yet, in 
her magnetic state, always speaks in rhythm. 

The falsehoods the world propagated on the sub- 
ject of Mrs. H are inconceivable; and never 

did I meet with so convincing a proof of its love of 
calumny as in this instance. She was wont to say, 
'^ They have power over my body, but not over 
my mind ;** but the number of persons who were 
attracted to her bed-side, out of mere curiosity, oc- 
casioned me great annoyance. For her part, she 
received every body with kindness, although the 
exertion frequently gave her pain ; and she often 
defended those who had most slandered her. Good 
and bad alike, came to her. She was conscious of 
the evil where it existed, but she judged no one ; and 
many unbelieving sinners, who visited her, were 
amended, and awakened to a conviction of a future 
life. 

Many years before Mrs. H was brought to 

me, the earth, with its atmosphere, and every thing 
connected with it — mankind not excepted — had 
ceased to be anything for her. She had long needed 
more than mortal aid could yield her : she needed" 



60 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

other skies — other nourishment — other airs, than this 
planet could afford her. She was more than half a 
spirit, and belonged to a world of spirits — she be- 
longed to a world after death, and was herself more 
than half dead. That in the early years of her ill- 
ness Mrs. H might, by judicious treatment have 

been restored to a condition more fit for this world, 
is exceedingly probable ; but^ at a later period, this 
was impossible. However, by much care, we did so 
far improve her condition, that, in spite of many 
efforts made to poison her peace, she looked upon 
the years she spent at Weinsberg as the least painful 
of her magnetic life. 

As we have said^ her fragile body enveloped her 
spirit, but as a gauzy veil. She was small — her fea- 
tures were oriental — her eyes piercing and prophetic ; 
and their expression was heightened by her long, 
dark eye-lashes. She was a delicate flower, and 
lived upon sunbeams. 

Eschenmayer says of her in his " Mysteries," 
'' Her natural disposition was gentle, kind, and seri- 
ous ; ever disposed to contemplation and prayer ; 
her eyes had something spiritual in their expression, 
and always remained clear and bright in spite of her 
great suffering. They were penetrating, and in con- 
versation very varying ; they were sometimes sud- 
denly fixed, and seemed to emit sparks, a certain 
sign that she beheld some strange apparitions. When 
this happened, she would presently burst forth into 
words. Her corporeal life, when I first saw her, pro- 
mised no long duration ; and she was past all hope of 



EXTERNAL NERVOUS SYSTEM. 61 

restoration to a condition fitting her for this world. 
Without any very evident functional derangement, 
her life appeared but a glimmering torch. She was, 
as Kerner expressed it, a being in the gripe of death, 
but chained to the body by magnetic power. Soul 
and spirit seemed to me often divided, and whilst 
the first was still entangled with the body, the latter 
spread its wings and fluttered into other regions." 



HER EXTERNAL NERVOUS SYSTEM, AND CONNEXION WITH 
THE PHYSICAL WORLD. 

In stones and metals, as well as in plants and ani- 
mal bodies, there dwell many elements and powers 
of which we only become sensible when we step out 
of that isolation in which our daily life retains us. 
This is not only perceptible in the magnetic state, 
but more or less in all nervous temperaments. 

Thus the phenomena of rhabdomancy to a vast 
number of persons are indisputable facts ; developing 
themselves more or less apparently, as the nerve- 
spirit is more or less capable of setting itself free. 
Del Rio relates, that in Spain there is a race of 
people called Zahuris, who can see things hidden 
under the earth, as water, veins of metal, and dead 
bodies. Gamasche, a Portuguese, who lived in the 
beginning of the 1 8th century, had the faculty of 
discerning water and metals at a considerable depth 
under ground. Zschokke mentions a young girl 



62 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

Who exhibited the phenomena of rhabdomancy in a 
remarkable degree; Ritters experiments with the 
peasant Campetti are well known; and numerous 
instances of the susceptibility of sleep-wakers to the 
hidden properties of stones and metals are on record. 
The ancients, also, especially Orpheus, attribute ex- 
traordinary secret powers to stones, metals, and 
roots. 

The High Priest of the Jews wore a breast-plate, 
studded with jewels, on the pit of the stomach, which 
were used in order to the enunciation of the Divine 
prophecies. Aristotle, Dioscorides, Galen, Pliny, 
and many others, allude to the magic power of stones, 
which were used as talismans and charms. Theo- 
phrastus says, that by carrying certain stones about 
him, he has escaped fevers ; and that the Magi pre- 
pared stones which cured or averted various diseases. 
But, he adds, that these stones have no longer the 
same properties, the aspect of the heavens not being 
the same. 

But even were the heavens the same, which thev 
aj-e not, mankind is changed ; and for that reason 
they look upon these notions of the ancients as mere 
fiction. When man was nearer nature, and less en - 
tangled with the clay that envelopes him than he 
has since become by civilization, he was sensible of 
spiritual influences, and even of the hidden proper- 
ties of stones. But now^ with his threefold garment 
of earth about him, he is only susceptible of chemical 
and mechanical influences ; and it needs poisons ex- 
tracted from the three kingdoms of nature (as our pre- 



EXTERNAL NERVOUS SYSTEM. 63 

sent medical practice testifies) to penetrate this isolat- 
ed mass. But the magnetic life shows^us many phe- 
nomena that prove the reality of much that we have 
been accustomed to look upon as dreams of the poet. 
In the East, there is still the same belief in the 
power of stones ; and jewels are worn, not only as 
ornaments, but as talismans. 

Schubert, in his Natural History, observes, that it 
appears from many observations, that the mineral 
kingdom has a deep and magical connexion with the 
nature of man and his spiritual relations ; and mag- 
netic clairvoyance has exhibited eflfects, not only 
from contact, but from the mere neighbourhood of 
metals, that are certainly neither chemical nor me- 
chanical.* 

These results appear rather the effects of a peculiar 
indwelling spirit, (Geist) whether magnetic or elec- 
trical, of which we are ordinarily not sensible. It is 
remarkable that coloured stones produced much more 
effect upon Mrs. H , than those that were colour- 



* We here omit the details of the various experiments with 
metals, stones, plants, &c. which would probably be found tedious, 
and would swell this little work to too large a size. Suffice it 
to say, that almost every substance produced specific and very 
evident effects upon the nervous system of the Seherin, by being 
merely held in her hand. The experiments seem to have been 
made with great caution ; and it was always observed that her 
left side was the most susceptible. This general susceptibility 
was to have been expected. In some slight degree the same 
thing takes place with the healthy organism. The practised 
sense of an experienced chemist will detect many substances by 
touch. It is related of Werner, that he could tell the specific 



64 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

less. Ennemoser mentions a very susceptible woman 
who was always excited by the sight of the ruby, but 

calmed by looking at crystal. Mrs. H , however, 

never looked at the minerals. The experiments were 
made by placing them in her hand, without telling 
her what they were. She was very sensible of the 
effects of glass and crystal ; they awakened her from 
her somnambulic state ; and if allowed to lie long on 
the pit of her stomach, produced catalepsy. She 
was affected in the same manner by sand, or even 
standing for some time near a glass window. The 
odour of sand and glass was very perceptible and 
very agreeable to her ; but if she chanced to seat her- 
self on a sandstone bench, she was apt to become 
cataleptic ; and once, having been for some time 
missed, she was at length found at the top of the 
house, seated on a heap of sand, so rigid, that she 
had been unable to move away from it. 

Our experiments with respect to the effects of 
minerals on Mrs. H were confirmed in other 

gravity of a mineral with great accuracy by means of his long- 
trained muscular sense. Some blind people have been able to 
discriminate colours with the tips of the fingers. Doubtless, 
every substance has its specific relation to the nervous system of 
man ; its peculiar smoothness or roughness, its peculiar power of 
conducting heat, its peculiar electromotive power, and so on. 
Accordingly, all that these experiments seem to establish is the 

obvious fact, that in Mrs. H there was developed an enor^ 

mous intensification of ordinary sensibility ; and this suggests the 
very important inquiry, which of the phenomena manifested by 
mesmeric patients are not reducible to this head ? An analysis 
of this sort would leave the residuary facts all the more distinct 
and accessible to investigation. — Translator. 



SUSPENSION OF GRAVITY. 65 

forms — namely^ by placing a divining rod, or pen- 
dulum of hazel, in her left hand, which she held 
over the different substances; and we then found 
that those which produced no effects on her had no 
attraction for the wand, and vice versa. These 
experiments might have been carried much farther — 
as by placing the various substances on the pit of 
her stomach, for example — had I not apprehended 
the effects on her excitable constitution. 



EFFECTS OF WATER, AND SUSPENSION OF GRAVITY. 

If Mrs. H held water in her hand, she be- 
came immediately weak. By day, she could take 
no fluid without feeling giddy ; but after sunset, this 
inconvenience no longer existed. During the day, 
however intense the heat, she was never thirsty. 
In her sleep-waking state, she could distinguish 
the magnetic passes that I had made over a glass of 
water, they appearing darker than the water itself; 
and when she was very clairvoyante, she could by 
this means tell me how many passes I had made, 
and did so always correctly. 

When she was placed in a bath in this state, 
extraordinary phenomena were exhibited — namely, 
that her limbs, breast, and the lower part of her 
person, possessed by a strange elasticity, involun- 
tarily emerged from the water. Her attendants 



66 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

used every effort to submerge her body, but she 
could not be kept down ; and had she at these times 
been thrown into a river, she would no more have 
sunk than a cork. 

This circumstance reminds us of the test applied 
to witches, who were often, doubtless, persons under 
magnetic conditions ; and thus, contrary to the 
ordinary law, floated on water. Andrew MoUers 
mentions a woman, who lived in 1620, who, being 
in a magnetic state, rose suddenly from the bed into 
the air, in the presence of many persons, and hovered 
several yards above it, as if she would have flown 
out of the window. The assistants called upon 
God, and forced her down again. Privy Counsellor 
Horst speaks of a man in the same condition, who, 
in the presence of many respectable witnesses, as- 
cended into the air, and hovered over the heads of 
the people present, so that they ran underneath 
him, in order to defend him from injury should he 
fall. Something of the same sort is observed in 
natural sleepwalkers, who can maintain themselves 
in the most perilous situations, and, if they fall, are 
seldom hurt. The Indian jugglers, also, and persons 
in St Yitus's dance, do many things in defiance of 

the ordinary laws of gravity. When Mrs. H , 

however, awoke from her magnetic trance, she was 
very sensible of the weight of bodies ; and an ap- 
parently light person would often appear to her 
heavier than one of much larger dimensions. She 
was conscious of weight, independently of matter — 
she said there was such a thing as moral weight. 



SUSPENSION OF GRAVITY. 6? 

If I placed my fingers against hers, they were at- 
tracted as by a magnet ; and I could thus lift her 
from the ground. 

Many similar phenomena have been observed, 
especially those at the tomb of the Abbe Paris in 
1724, to which sick persons resorted in crowds, and 
permitted themselves to be beaten by strong men 
with all sorts of weapons, and even to be laid under 
a plank, on which as many as twenty or more per- 
sons stood ; and this not only without pain or injury, 
but with advantage. We observe the same pheno- 
mena in the witch-trials of the middle ages, where 
great weights were used as instruments of torture, 
but were, in many instances, unfelt by the victim : 
and this suspension of gravity has been also found in 
persons who have led very ascetic lives, and with- 
drawn themselves into the depths of the inner-life. 

According to the testimony of St. Theresa, Peter 
of Alcantara, for fourteen years, allowed himself but 
half an hour s sleep, and that he took sitting, with 
his head leaning on a post ; he lived on bread and 
water, which he took at intervals of three, and some- 
times of eight, days, till, by this mortification of 
his body, it became transparent, and he saw 
through it as through a veil. His spirit fteing in 
constant communion with God, he was frequently 
enveloped in a lustrous light, and lifted into the air. 
St. Theresa, also, felt her soul, and then her head, 
and, finally, her whole body, lifted from the earth ; 
and, in the sight of all the sisterhood, she floated over 
the grate of the door. Many such instances are re- 



G8 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

corded in the lives of the saints — phenomena which 
we cannot comprehend, and therefore pronounce to 
be fables. 

The laurel had also a remarkable effect on Mrs, 

H 5 and this accounts for the use of it in the 

temples of Delphi, Esculapius, &c. &c. She also 
found the hazel-nut tree, which has been long used 
amongst the people for purposes of divination, a 
powerful magnetic conductor. I myself lately saw 
the hands and arms of a healthy woman rendered 
stiff by holding the hazel wand. It is probably from 
an altered condition, and the use of strong stimulants 
of various kinds, that we are no longer susceptible 
of these more delicate influences. 

The hoof of an elephant produced on Mrs. H 

a sort of epileptic fit ; and it is remarkable that, 
amongst the ancients, an elephant's hoof was con- 
sidered beneficial in this disease; and that this 
animal is believed by naturalists to be itself very 
subject to epilepsy. This ancient opinion accords 
with the modern system of homoeopathy. The horn 
of the chamois was also considered good for the 
cramp ; and the Tyrolese to this day frequently wear 
finger-rings of this horn, which they call cramp- 
rings. ^ 

The nipples of a horse, the tooth of a mammoth, 
bezoar, a spider's web, the glow-worm, &;c. &c.j 
all produced specific effects on being placed in her 
hand ; and a few drops of acid, produced by animal 
putrefaction, exhibited the symptoms that follow the 
eating a decayed sausage. " These singular effects," 



SUSPENSION OF GRAVITY. 69 

says Schubert, " throw much light on the relations 
in which we stand to external nature. When the 
soul, itself vigorous, rules over the body, these in- 
fluences are scarcely perceptible to us ; but, when it 
drops the rein, and (as in the case of the Seeress of 
Prevorst) retires into the depths within, the forsaken 
and susceptible body is awakened to these hidden 
properties. It is remarkable that the cramps and 
rigidities produced by minerals, which were often 
very painful to behold, were not unfrequently ulti- 
mately beneficial." 

A few small diamonds placed in the hand of Mrs, 

H caused an extraordinary dilatation of the 

eyes, and an immobility of the pupil, together with a 
stiffness of the left hand and right foot. The effects 
of all substances was much greater when placed on 
her hand, than when swallowed^ either as food or 
medicine. 

Doubtless, our insensibility to external influences 
is much increased by the habit of taking food and 
liquids of an exciting nature. When the ancients 
desired to subject a patient to these hidden powers, 
they prepared him for the operation by a course of 
extreme temperance. The modern practice of me- 
dicine, denominated homoeopathic^ acts in tw> ways — 
first, by the removal of all excitements, and, secondly, 
by the repetition of medicines, whose extreme sub- 
division reminds us of the experiments of Robert 
Brown, who, having reduced the particles of the 
body to the smallest atoms, perceived in them what 
seemed to be a spontaneous and independent animal 



70 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

motion. It would appear that these substances, 
when mixed with water, have an electrical action 
upon the cuticle, as was the case with the Seherin, 
instead of acting, as do ordinary medicines, by as- 
similation, through the intestinal canal. As long as 
the atoms are combined in a mass, they merely obey 
the law of cohesion ; their extreme sub-division, by 
exposing them to electrical influences, gave them 
this motion, which the delicate microscope dis- 
covered. 

Is not the reflection, that our bodies, like a fine- 
stringed instrument, are moved by the lightest airs 
that blow upon them, calculated to make us sad? 
Our joys and sorrows, and often even our will, are 
under the influence of powers to us altogether im- 
perceptible, and whose subtle effects we cannot elude. 
But it appears that, properly considered, the relation 
in which the power of the soul stands to the body, 
is very different to that of the external elements. 
As the bird in the cage is excited to a more vigorous 
exertion of its voice, by the noises and discords that 
surround it, so is the nature of man nourished and 
strengthened by the variety of opposing influences 
that assail him on every side. The stormy wind 
refreshes his respiratory organs — his food and drink 
give him vigour; but it is the ruling power of the 
soul that decrees how, and to what extent, they shall 
operate. 

When the young prisoner in the king's palace be- 
sought the chamberlain to give him roots and water, 
instead of the luxurious food and wine from the king's 



IMPONDERABLE SUBSTANCES. 71 

table ; the chamberlain, fearing the anger of his lord, 
limited the indulgence to a few days, lest the face of 
the boy, by this poor diet, should look more miserable 
than those of his companions. But, lo ! the days 
having elapsed, the boy looked handsomer and bet- 
ter than all the others ; so Melzar took away their 
rich food and drinks, and gave them roots and water 
also. 

Thus, the spring of all nourishment and abundance, 
whether of the inner or outer man, is not to be found 
where we seek it : it lies deep in the spirituality of 
our nature — there, where no external evils can reach, 
to trouble it or dry it up. 



EFFECTS OF IMPONDERABLE SUBSTANCES. 

The light of the sun produced various physical 

effects on Mrs. H . Amongst others, it gave her 

the headach; and, in her sleep, she desired that a 
glass should be laid on the pit of her stomach, when 
she was exposed to his light ; and this, by aug - 
menting her isolation, enabled her to bear it. The 
different colours in a ray of light had, also, each its 
peculiar effect. The light of the moon did not affect 
her, unless she looked at it ; then it produced melan- 
choly, and a cold shiver. She was very much affected 
by lightning — perceived flashes that were invisible to 
us, and felt others before we saw them. On touching 
her with a finger, during an electrical state of the 



72 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

atmosphere, she saw small flashes, which ascended 
to the ceiling — from men these were colourless, 
from women blue ; and she perceived emanations of 
the same sort, and with the same variation of colour, 
from people's eyes. Rain-water^ fallen during a 
storm, she could not drink, on account of the heat it 
occasioned ; but, at other times^ it was agreeable to 
her. As may be imagined, she was much affected by 
electricity, in all its forms. 

Mrs. H could not exist without an open 

window : she said that she extracted a vivifying 
principle from the air. She was also of opinion, that 
the opening a window, at the moment of a soul's 
departure, is not a mere superstition, but that it 
actually facilitates its escape ; and that there is some 
substance in the air, which spirits make use of to 
render themselves audible and visible to mortals. 
This substance she believed to be prejudicial to all ; 
but its effects were not perceived, except by herself. 
Jamblich is of opinion, that the parting soul is en- 
veloped in a robe of air, which takes on the contour 
of the person. Paracelsus affirms, that man is not 
only fed through his stomach, but through all his 
limbs, which draw in nourishment from the four ele- 
ments out of which he is formed. 

Mrs. H was extremely sensible of all conta- 
gious and epidemic influences. The higher she was 
in space, the more abnormal and magnetic was her 
condition : this was observable, even in the different 
floors of a house. In a valley, she felt oppressed 
and weighed down, and was attacked by convulsions. 



THE HUMAN EYE. 73 

She was affected by wind, especially when it was 
gusty; and, though shut up in a room, could tell 
from what point it blew. 

Music frequently threw Mrs. H into a som- 
nambulic state ; she became clearer, and spoke in 
rhythm. She would make me magnetise the water 
she drank by sounds from the Jew's-harp ; and when 
I had done this unknown to her, on drinking water 
so prepared, she involuntarily began to sing. The 
prophet Elisha gives an example of how the inner- 
life is quickened by music : ^^ When he was brought 
before the King of Israel, he bade them bring in a 
musician ; and when the musician touched the strings, 
the hand of the Lord was upon Elisha, and he pro- 
phesied." 



ON THE HUMAN EYE. 



When Mrs. H looked into the right eye of a 

person, she saw, behind the reflected image of herself, 
another, which appeared neither to be her own, nor 
that of the person in whose eye she was looking. 
She believed it to be the picture of that person's 
inner-self. In many persons, this internal image 
appeared more earnest than the external, or the re- 
verse : it bespoke the character of the person ; but, 
with many, it was more beautiful and pure than the 
other. If she looked into the left eye, she saw im- 
mediately whatever internal disease existed — whether 



74 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

in the stomach, lungs, or elsewhere — and prescribed 
for it. In my left eye she saw prescriptions for her- 
self ; and in that of a man, who had only a left eye, 
she saw both his inward malady, and the image of 
his inner man. In the right eye of an animal, as a 
dog or a fowl, she saw a blue flame — doubtless its 
immortal part, or soul. Of which Schubert observes, 
" that we often see, in the eyes of an animal, glimpses 
of a hidden, secret world, as through a door, uniting 
the other world with this ; and there frequently ap- 
pears in the eyes of dying animals, uselessly slain or 
tortured by the hand of man, a gleam of deep self- 
consciousness, which is prepared to bear witness 
against us in the other world." 

She said, that it was not with her fleshly, but with 
her spiritual eye, which lay beneath it, that she saw 
this second image in the eyes of others, and also dis- 
cerned spirits. It was by this inner-eye that Jacob 
Bbhm beheld the whole creation, and saw into the 
essences, use, and properties of plants, &c. &c. The 

eyes of some persons immediately threw Mrs. H 

into the sleep-waking state. Soap-bubbles, glass, 
and mirrors, excited her spiritual eye. A child hap- 
pening to blow soap-bubbles : She exclaimed, '^ Ah ! 
my God ! I behold in the bubbles every thing I think 
of, although it be distant — not in little, but as large 
as life — ^but it frightens me." I then made a soap- 
bubble, and bade her look for her child that was far 
away. She said she saw him in bed, and it gave her 
much pleasure. At another time she saw my wife, 
who was in another house, and described precisely 



THE PIT OF THE STOMACH. 75 

the situation she was in at the moment — a point I 
took care immediately to ascertain. She was^ how- 
ever, with difficulty induced to look into these soap- 
bubbles : she seemed to shudder, and she was afraid 
she might see something that would alarm her. In 
one of these she once saw a small coffin, standing 
before a neighbouring house. At that time there was 
no child sick, but, shortly afterwards, the lady who 
lived there was confined. The child lived but a few 

months, and Mrs. H saw it carried from the 

house in a coffin. If we wished her to recall dreams 
which she had forgotten, it was only necessary to 
make her look at a soap-bubble^ and her memory of 
them immediately returned. She often saw persons, 
that were about to arrive at the house, in a glass of 
water ; but when she was invited to this sort of divi- 
nation, and did it unwillingly, she was sometimes 
mistaken. 



SEEING WITH THE PIT OP THE STOMACH. 

The following phenomena are similar to those 
known of somnambulic persons, who could read what 
was laid on the pit of the stomach ; or else^ by the 
sense of feeling, obtained a knowledge of it. I gave 

Mrs. H two pieces of paper, carefully folded : 

on one of which I had secretly written, ^^ There is a 
God;" on the other, " There is no God." I put 
them into her left hand, when she was apparently 
awake, and asked her if she felt any difference be ■ 



76 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

tween them. After a pause, she returned me the 
first, and said, " This gives me a sensation, the other 
feels like a void." I repeated the experiment four 
times, and always with the same result. I then 
wrote on a piece of paper, " There are spectres ;" 
and on another, '^ There are no spectres." She laid 
the first on the pit of her stomach, and held the other 
in her hand, and read them both. I then wrote, 

'' You have seen B ." When she laid the paper 

on the pit of her stomach, she said it made her sad ; 
and although, when she afterwards read the contents, 
she could see no reason for it, yet the experiment, 
repeated, produced the same efiect. Some years after- 
wards, when I laid a folded letter from this person 
in her hand, though she had no idea what it was, the 
result was the same ; and similar effects were pro- 
duced by his presence. Many curious experiments, 
of the same sort, all tended to the conviction, that 
writings or drawings, placed on the pit of her sto- 
mach, produced sensible effects, according to their 
nature. Good news of her child made her laugh — 
ill news made her sad ; the name of a person who 
was her enemy awakened anger ; and the name of 
Napoleon excited martial ideas, and she sang a 
march. Strange as these results are, repeated ex- 
periments confirmed them ; and, however difficult to 
believe, they are absolute facts. As is usually the 

case with sleep-wakers, Mrs. H could clearly 

distinguish the internal organs of the body, especially 
when diseased. She saw distinctly the course of the 
nerves, and could describe them anatomically. 



THE PIT OF THE STOMACH. 77 

A magnetic wand, with an iron point, held to her 
right eye, and directed to any distant object, magni- 
fied it exceedingly : The smallest star appeared as 
large as the moon, and the moon so large, that she 
could distinguish the different bright spots. But she 
could only discern the right side of it ; the left was 
invisible to her. She said that the dwellers on the 
left side of the moon were much engaged with build- 
ing, and not so happy as those on the right. I told 
her I thought this was mere dreaming ; but she de- 
nied it, and said that her sleep-waking was a state 
of perfect vigilance. It is ^luch to be regretted, that 
these observations were made, at a time that the 
Seherin was unable to leave her bed, and a long con- 
templation of the heavenly bodies was out of her 
power. 

When she saw people who had lost a limb, she 
still saw the limb attached to the body ; that is, she 
saw the nerve-projected -form of the limb, in the 
same way that she saw the nerve-projected-forms of 
dead persons. From this interesting phenomenon, 
we may, perhaps, explain the sensations of persons, 
who still have feeling in a limb that has been ampu- 
tated : the invisible nerve-projected-form of the limb 
is still in connexion with the visible body ; and this 
is a satisfactory proof, that after the destruction of 
the visible husk, the form is preserved by the nerve- 
spirit. The old Theosophist, Oetinger, says, " The 
earthly husk remains in the retort, whilst the vola- 
tile essence ascends, like a spirit, perfect in form, but 
void of substance." 



78 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 



THE PROTECTING SPIRIT. 

In common with all somnambules, and many others 

who have cultivated their inner-life, Mrs. H 

had a visible spiritual guide. Socrates, and several 
others, have believed themselves under the guidance 
of a demon. This genius, or demon, not only warned 
him of approaching dangers, but others through him : 
it also revealed the future to him, and advised him 
how to act. 

The late wife of a respectable citizen at Heilbronn, 
named Arnold, had continually a spirit near her, who 
not only warned her of several impending dangers, 
but also informed her of the approaching visits of 
her friends, as well as of deaths about to take place 
in her family; and, finally, of her own. He was 
only once visible to her, and that was in the form of 
an old man ; but his presence was not only felt by 
her, but by others ; and when she conversed with 
him, they felt the air stirred, as by breath. Many 
yet living and very credible witnesses, are in pos- 
session of the most remarkable facts relating to this 
case. 

A young girl, called Ludwiger, in early childhood 
had wholly lost her speech and the use of her limbs. 
The mother, on her death-bed, committed the care 
of this helpless girl to her other daughters, and they 
punctually discharged the duty till the wedding-day 
of one of them, when their charge was forgotten ; 



THE PROTECTING SPIRIT. 79 

but, in the midst of the marriage feast, the three 
young women suddenly remembered their neglect, 
and, hastening to the room of the invalid, they found 
her^ to their surprise, sitting up, and learned from 
her lips that her mother had been there and handed 
her her food. This was the only time she ever 
spoke during her illness, and she shortly after died. 

" Sometimes/' says Jamblichus, " an unseen 
spirit hovers round the sleeper, to avert from us 
pain of soul or body ; and sometimes, betwixt sleep- 
ing and waking, or in heaven-sent dreams, we hear 
a faint voice which directs us what to do." 

I knew a countryman who, for many years, per- 
formed cures by strokes, or passes. According to 
his own account, it began thus : In his thirty-ninth 
year he was attacked by an excruciating pain over 
his right eye, which totally disabled him from work, 
and for which all remedies had failed. On one 
occasion, when it had lasted three days, he earnestly 
besought God to help him ; whereupon a form ap- 
peared to him, and made seven passes with the thumb 
from the eye to the pit of the stomach, by which he 
was much relieved; and, by repeating the passes 
himself, he was soon wholly cured. 

In Horst's collection of trials for witchcraft, we 
read of a girl who had long suffered from lameness, 
occasioned by a distorted bone. Nothing was found 
efficacious, till one night the bone became straight of 
itself. The child waked her mother and brother, 
and asked if they had seen and heard the angel that 
had been with her ? It appeared to her that some- 



80 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

thing had stroked her bone, whereon it became 
straight ; and, from that time, her lameness ceased. 

Of the appearance of her protecting spirit, (her 
grandmother, Schmidgall,) who was her constant 

and visible guide, Mrs. H could never speak 

without being much affected — indeed, even of all 
apparitions and communications from the world of 
spirits, she was very unwilling to converse, and 
never did it except when requested. Unless when 
dropped by accident, or when pressed to make reve- 
lations, we heard nothing of tliese things, however 
remarkable. The apparitions were injurious both to 
her health and spirits ; but her perfect candour, and 
entire conviction, are known to many worthy per- 
sons who learnt to understand her. 

At such times as the faculty of ghost-seeing was 
active in her, she believed herself to be awake ; but 
she was then in that peculiar state we have deno- 
minated as the inner-life. Her grandmother always 
appeared to her in the form she bore when alive, but 
in different attire : she seemed to wear a robe, with 
a girdle ; and on her head was something like a veil, 
which covered the hair and fell over the ears. All 
female spirits, without exception, had this head- 
covering. 

We have above mentioned how it once appeared 
to her that she was magnetized by her protecting 
spirit, and how objects, whose near neighbourhood 
was injurious to I er, were removed. This happened 
again here (in Weinsberg) at three o'clock in the 
morning. After magnetizing her, the spirit bade her 



THE PROPHETIC SPIRIT. 81 

rise and write — which she did — and told her that 
the writing would remind her to teach her physician 

to magnetize her in that manner. Mrs. H 

begged the spirit to magnetize her always ; but it 
answered — '' Had I the power of doing so, you 
would soon take up your bed and walk !" 

As was the case at an earlier period, she still often 
saw a spectral form behind the person she was look- 
ing at. Sometimes this appeared to be his protect- 
ing spirit, and at others the image of his inner self. 
Thus, behind a woman whom she had never seen 
before, she once perceived a shadowy form, with 
slender limbs and palpitating movements. This 
woman proved to be a person of a most restless dis- 
position. 

Another time, as she was looking from the win- 
dow, an unknown person passed and saluted her, 
but she sprang suddenly back ; and when I in- 
quired the reason, she told me that she had seen, 
behind a woman who had just passed, a masculine 
disagreeable looking form, in dark clothes. I looked 
out, and recognized a woman of a very quarrelsome, 
ill character, who, however, had come from a dis- 
tance, and was quite a stranger to Mrs. H . 

Behind a servant girl, who lived with me, she 
often saw the form of a boy about twelve years old. 
I asked the girl if she had any relation of that age, 
but she said she had not. But she. told me after- 
wards that, on thinking of wy inquiry, she re- 
membered that her brother, who had died when he 
was three years old, would have been just twelve. 

F 



82 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

This apparent increase in the age of the spirit will 
be touched on by and by. ^' It will hereafter be 
proved/' says Kant, in the dream of a ghost-seer, 
'^ that the human soul, even in this life, is in con- 
stant communication with the spiritual world, and 
that these are susceptible of mutual impressions; 
but, as long as all goes well, these impressions are 
unperceived ! " 



PROPHETIC DREAMS. 

On one occasion, Mrs. H , who was then ex- 
tremely unwell, said to a very sensible woman, who was 
about to take leave of her — " If you dream to-night 
what will make me better, I will take it." The 
lady dreamt that, passing from her chamber into 
another larger, she had seen several pitchers of 

chalybeate water, and that Mrs. H had made a 

sign to her to britig her one on which was inscribed 
"^ Fachinger water ;* and, what is most extraordin- 
ary, Mrs. H on the same night dreamt a cor- 
responding dream. She obeyed the behest, and the 
result was what was desired. 

One night she dreamt that she saw her uncle's 
eldest daughter go out of the house with a small 
coffin on her head : seven days afterwards died her 
own child, aged one year, of whose illness, at that 
time, we had not the least idea. She had related 
the dream to me and others on awaking. Another 



PROPHETIC DREAMS. 83 

night she dreamt that she was crossing some water, 
holding in her hand a piece of decaying flesh, and 

that, meeting Mrs. N , the latter had anxiously 

inquired what she was going to do with it (she 
related this dream to us, which we were unable to 

interpret) : seven days afterwards Mrs. N was 

delivered of a dead child, whose body was already in 
a state of corruption. On another night she dreamt 

that Mrs. L , whom she had never seen nor 

known, came to her weeping, with a dead child in 
her arms, and entreating her aid : six weeks after- 
wards, this lady was confined, after much suffering 
and danger, and lost her child. 

One night that she slept in my house, in a lower 
story, she dreamt that, in the water -tub above 
stairs, where she had never been, there was some- 
thing that should not be there. She told me this 
dream, and, on the following evening, I had the 
vessel emptied, and found in it an old rusty knitting 

needle. Mrs. H had drank water from this 

barrel just before she went to sleep ; and it was 
probably her susceptibility to the effect of metals 
that occasioned this dream. 

On the night of the 28th January 1828, Mrs. 

H dreamt that, being on a desert island, she 

saw her dead child enveloped with a heavenly light, 
with a wreath of flowers on its head, and a wand, 
with buds on it, in its hand. This disappeared; 
and she next saw me assisting a man who was bleed- 
ing ; and this was succeeded by a third vision of 
herself, suffering severe spasms, whilst a voice told 



84 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

her that I was sent for. This dream she related to 
me on the morning of the 29th. On the 30th, I 
was sent for to a man who had been stabbed in the 
breast ; and, on the same night, the third vision was 
explained by my being sent for to her. The in- 
terpretation of the child's appearance we did not 
learn. 

I shall now relate an instance of her fore- 
knowledge, when she did not dream^ but was in her 
sleep- waking state : It was on the 6th July 1827, 
that, after being some time torpid, she said — ^' I see 

N in the moon, nevertheless he yet lives upon 

the earth ; but I see him there as it were before- 
hand. In a quarter of a year he will die, and my 
father will be the first to learn his death." This 
person, who was then in perfect health, actually did 
die at the period named, and her father was the first 
to hear of it. 

The following is a remarkable prophetic dream of 
W. Reiniger, of Stuttgart, who was drowned in the 
Neckar, and who, as appears from his journal, 
lived a deep inner-life. Pie writes in this journal, 
which fell into the hands of his parents after his 
death, that he remembered, with horror, a dream 
his father had related to him. The father dreamt 
that, having crossed a river, holding his son by the 
hand, he suddenly saw the boy sink out of the reach 
of assistance ; and the young man adds — " If I am 
not mistaken, I had a similar dream, and the scene 
and circumstances are yet present to my imagination. 
My father will have forgotten it." Shortly before 



SECOND-SIGHT. 85 

his death, he appears, by his journal, to have suffered, 
for several nights, from a strange and unaccountable 
anxiety, and to have had, also, another alarming 
dream, the particulars of which he, unfortunately, 
does not relate. It probably referred to his ap- 
proaching fate. He was drowned whilst bathing in 
the Neckar, whither he had gone much against his 
inclination. 



SECOND-SIGHT. 

It is well known that the gift of second-sight is 
endemic in certain places — as in some parts of Scot- 
land and Denmark, for example. People who have 
this second-sight are remarked to have a piercing 

look — a look which I also observed in Mrs. H 

when she saw spirits or herself. At the moments 
that this faculty is in exercise, the body of the seer 
is rigid ; his eyelids are up-raised, and he is blind 

and deaf to all besides, as was Mrs. H . If the 

seer, in the moment of second-sight, touches another 
person, or animal, that person, or animal, is endued 
with the same faculty also. A horse will break into 
a sweat, and refuse to advance, when his rider sees 
a vision ; and horses frequently see these things 
when the rider does not. Horses will also often 
betray great uneasiness in passing over places where 
a body has been buried. In the year 1823, a new 
stall being built in the Castle of Schmiedelfeli 



86 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

the horse that was placed in it betrayed the greatest 
uneasiness ; afterwards a skeleton was found beneath 
the spot. In Scotland, this gift is supposed by some 
to be hereditary, but it is not always so. 

A remarkable instance of second-sight was ob- 
served in a minister's wife, at Nienberg, she having 
inherited this unfortunate faculty from her father. 

On the 13th January 1827, Mrs. H being 

seized with spasms at a very unusual hour, I en- 
deavoured to learn from her the cause of the acci- 
dent ; and, when she was in a sleep- waking state, 
she told me that she had seen a bier, and on it a 
person very dear to her — it was her brother, over 
whom a great danger impended ; he would be shot 
at on the 18th of the month ; and she pointed out 
how he should escape the danger, and described the 
assassin. It happened as she had foretold ; but the 
shot missed him. Some time after she had another 
warning respecting her brother : several times in 
her magnetic sleep she saw a fox, and she became 
aware that, in chasing this animal, he would be in 
imminent danger from the charge of his gun. Her 
brother, being warned, examined his weapon, and 
found that some unfriendly hand had overcharged 
it ; and he thus escaped the danger. She was sup- 
posed to be much en rapport with this brother, he 
having frequently magnetized her. 

On the morning of the 8th of May, at seven 
o'clock, she bade her sister not come too near her 
bed, for she felt that something invisible was ap- 
proaching. She had had this feeling for an hour, 



SECOND-SIGHT. 87 

and was eating her breakfast, when she saw her 
dead child standing by the bed, and near it her 
living one^ which was far away. The dead one 
looked on her steadfastly, and pointed with the 
finger to the living one. The latter had a pin in its 
hand, which it held in its mouth. The children ap- 
peared so real and actual, that she stretched out her 
hand to take away the pin. She cried out — ^' In 
the name of God, what is this ?" and then the vision 
disappeared. The child, which had died when it 
was nine months old^ looked now as if it were three — 
which is the age it would have reached had it lived — 
but it was light and transparent. The aspect of 
both was strange — something she found it impossible 
to describe. This sight affected her much, and she 
wept. She afterwards said that, in seven days 
hence, her child would swallow a pin, and die of it ; 
and that her parents, with whom the child was, 
must be warned of the danger. This was done ; 
and they wrote that, on examining the child, they 
had found a pin in its sleeve, which they had re- 
moved. 

Three successive days before the death of her 
father, at a time that the news of his illness had not 
reached her, she saw, when she was awake, a coffin 
standing by her bed, which was covered by a mort- 
cloth, on which lay a white cross. She was very 
much alarmed, and said she feared her father was 
dead, or sick. I comforted her by suggesting that 
some other person might be signified. She did not 
know how to interpret this covered coffin, as hither- 



88 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

to she had either seen coffins with the likeness of 
the person about to die lying in them, or the like- 
ness of the person about to be sick looking into 
them. On the morning of the 2d of May came the 
news of her father's illness ; on the same evening he 
died ; whilst she in her sleep was much distressed, 
and intimated that she saw something grievous, 
which she would not tell us, in order that she might 
not know it when she was awake ; on the next came 
the news of his death. Three times when awake she 
saw her mother-in-law looking into a coffin : seven 
days afterwards this lady fell ill, but she recovered. 

When Mrs. H saw the image of a person lying 

dead in a coffin, it predicted their approaching deaths, 
— if alive, a severe illness. 



THE GOING FORTH OF THE SPIRIT. 

On the above mentioned 2d of May, about nine 

o'clock at night, Mrs. H exclaimed in her 

sleep — ^^ Ah ! God ! " She awoke, as if aroused by 
the exclamation, and said that she had heard two 
voices proceeding from herself. At the same hour 
that this happened. Dr. Fohr, of Bottwar, the phy- 
sician who had attended the deceased, being with an 

uncle of Mrs. H , in a chamber next to that 

where the body lay — in which last there was only 
the corpse — heard the words — ^' Ah ! God ! '* so 
distinctly, that he went to see who was there, but 
found only the body. Dr. Fohr writes me on the 



GOING FORTH OF THE SPIRIT. 89 

subject : — '^ After my arrival at Oberstenfeld, where 

I found Mr. W dead, I distinctly heard, from 

the adjoining room where the body lay, the words — 
'Ah! God!* I thought it proceeded from the 

coffin, and that Mr. W 's death had only been 

apparent. I watched him for an hour, till I was 
satisfied he was really gone.'* The uncle heard 
nothing. It appears that there was nobody in that 
part of the house from whom the voice could have 
proceeded. 

She accounted for this by saying, that her intense 
anxiety to know how her father was, had enabled her 
soul to accompany her nerve-spirit to the place where 
he lay ; and that her mind and thoughts, being ear- 
nestly fixed on the physician and his skill, was the 
reason that he heard the exclamation her soul made 
over the coffin, which it repeated on its return, when 
I heard it. 

As I had been told by her parents, a year before 
her father s death, that, at the period of her early 
magnetic state, she was able to make herself heard 
by her friends, as they lay in bed at night, in the 
same village, but in other houses, by a knocking — as 
is said of the dead — I asked her, in her sleep, whe- 
ther she was able to do so now, and at what distance ? 
She answered, that she would sometime do it — that 
to the spirit space was nothing. Sometime after 
this, as we were going to bed — my children and ser- 
vants beiug already asleep — ^We heard a knocking, as 
if in the air, over our heads. There were six knocks, 
at intervals of half a minute. It was a hollow, yet 



00 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

clear sound — soft, but distinct. We were certain 
there was no one near us, nor over us^ from whom it 
could proceed ; and our house stands by itself. On 
the following evening, when she was asleep — when 
we had mentioned the knocking to nobody whatever 
— she asked me, whether she should soon knock to 
us again ? which, as she said it was hurtful to her, I 
declined. She told me afterwards, that this knock- 
ing was made by the spirit and the air, not by the 
soul ; but that the voice heard by her father s coffin, 
was when the soul, through grief and earnest long- 
ing, had quitted the body with the spirit. 

We need not be surprised at these phenomena, 
when we remember that dying persons — when the 
soul is yet in the body, but the spirit is free — have it 
in their power to appear, in their own image, to dis- 
tant friends. Thus did a relation of my friend. Dr. 
Seyffer's, appear to him, at the moment of death ; 
as did also his academical friend, Prince Hohenlohe, 
to Dr. Oesterlen. The following remarkable history, 
also, I have from the most respectable authority. 

Mr. HUbschmann, of Stuttgart, had a father in 
Bothland, and a brother in Strasburg. It happened, 

that one morning, at break of day, Mr. H 's 

children awoke him, by crying out, " Grandfather ! 

grandfather ! grandfather is come ! *' Mr. H 

looked about, but saw nothing. On interrogating 
his children, they solemnly declared that their grand- 
father had been there, but whither he had gone they 

knew not. After some days had elapsed, Mr. H- 

received a letter from his brother at Strasburg, in- 



GOING FORTH OF THE SPIRIT. 91 

quiring anxiously if he had any intelligence of their 
father, as a circumstance that had happened had oc- 
casioned him much alarm ; namely, that, on a certain 
day and hour, (and they were the same on which the 
children had made the above-mentioned exclamation,) 
he had been met by his father, as he entered his work- 
shop in the morning. Eight days afterwards came 
the news of the old man's death ; he had expired at 
the precise moment when he appeared to his family, 
at Strasburg and Stuttgart. 

Dr. Bardili, a young man of talent, who quitted 
his country for America, and devoted himself much 
to the study of languages and mathematics — and who, 
according to the testimony of his friends, had not 
much faith in spiritual matters — says, in the last let- 
ter he ever wrote to them — which letter is still in 
their possession — " The most extraordinary thing has 
lately happened to me : my friend Elwert, who died 
nine years ago at Wirtemberg, appeared to me, and 
said, ' Thou shalt soon die ! ' and what is more strange 
is, that th^ day he appeared to me was the anniver- 
sary of his own death." Shortly after writing this 
letter. Dr. B died, very unexpectedly. 

Mrs. H related to me, that sometime ago, she 

had seen herself sitting on a stool, and clothed in 
white, whilst she was lying in bed. She looked at 
the object, and tried to cry out, but could not ; at 
length, when she did so, it vanished. She said, on 
this occasion, that her soul left her body, and clothed 
itself in an airy form, whilst her spirit remained with 
it. On the 28th May 1827, at midnight, when I 



92 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

was with her, she again saw herself, as she after- 
wards related, sitting on a stool, clothed in a white 
dress which she had, but was not then wearing. She 
tried to cry out, but could neither speak nor move ; 
nor could see any object, but that one on which her 
eyes were fixed. Whilst she looked at it, her mind 
was pervaded with but one idea — one which she had 
not before entertained — which expressed itself thus : 

One day in heaven's worth 
A thousand here, on earth. 

The image rose, and ran towards her ; and just as 
it reached her, a sort of electric shock passed over 
her, which I saw ; she then uttered a scream, and 
related to me what she had seen. She saw herself 
on other occasions ; and once, when I remarked it, 
and stept between her and the image, she told me 
afterwards, that my doing so had caused her a very. 
uncomfortable sensation, as she seemed to be cut off 
from her soul. 

I shall here say nothing of this self-seeing, nor of 
those instances where the image has been visible to 
others. These phenomena all resolve themselves into 
examples of second-sight. 

Mrs. H considered the number 7, as her ap- 
pointed number, and out of this proceeded all her 
reckonings for her remedies, &c. &c. ; and the seventh 
hour of the day was always, with her, the most cri- 
tical. " This number," she said, " lies within me, 
like a language, (of this, more hereafter.) Had I 
the number 3, I should be well much sooner." 



GOING FORTH OF THE SPIRIT. 93 

Like Paracelsus, she attributed great efficacy to 
the St. John's -wort — Hypericum perforatum — a 
plant which he used, not only internally, but as an 
amulet. A young man, much afflicted with melan- 
choly, to whom Mrs. H prescribed this plant as 

an amulet, was entirely cured, after a severe erup- 
tion that broke out on him, in consequence of its 

application. Mrs. H drew her remedies, as do 

all sleep- wakers, not only from the chemist's shop, 
but from all nature : witness her prescription of 
an ointment, made from the nipples of a horse, for 
strengthening the spine. Her prescriptions were 
often in accordance with the homoeopathic system : 
ordering those things, in small quantities, which, in 
larger, would have produced the disease to be cured. 
Sometimes her prescriptions were purely magical. 
Thus, at one time she desired me, every morning and 
evening, at seven, to say the Lord's Prayer, pro- 
vided I could do it with entire faith ; and that, on 
repeating the words, " Deliver us from evil," I 
should lay my hand on her forehead, &c. &c. 

With respect to amulets, she used them less for 
herself than for others. They were composed some- 
times of vegetable substances, but more frequently 
of writing, chiefly from her inner-tongue. " Speech," 
says Poiret, " is not only given to man as a means 
of communication, but as a means of governing the 
whole visible world by its secret powers — a word and 
a thing are yet one and the same. When the holy 
men of ancient times did such great things — when 
Adam named all the animals, in accordance with 



94 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

their nature— when Noah called them to him in the 
ark — and when Moses bade the Red Sea to divide — 
it was only a revival of the original nature of man." 
And why should there not be a language like that 
the Seherin describes, which expresses, by its words 
and characters, the powers and gradations of physi- 
cal nature ; so that, by hearing or reading the words, 
the existing properties of the thing are immediately 
presented to the mind ? A representative, or picto- 
rial language, must necessarily express an entire 
system, in a few words ; and there may thus be 
magical words, which comprise both the spirit and 
the power of holiness ; and an amulet may be only 
a holy cipher, or property in nature, emitting the 
name and virtue of the true faith. The virtue does 
not lie in the word, as a word, any more than it does 
in the substance of the herbs and metals. You may 
make your phylacteries as long as the Pharisees' ; but 
you will do nothing without faith, nor whilst the 
name of Jesus is but an idle breath upon your lips. 

These magical formulas of Mrs. H , seemed 

to consist of words and numbers still more profound 
than her ordinary inner-language, and appeared to 
belong rather to those mysterious ciphers, whereby 
she calculated the day of her death. 

Such signs and numbers were used by the ancients, 
and, doubtless, proceeded from the inner-seeing. In 
choosing amulets, she prescribed differently, accord- 
ing as they were to be laid on the back, or the pit of 
the stomach. When the disease proceeded chiefly 
from the brain, she applied them to the back ; when 



GOING FORTH OF THE SPIRIT. 95 

the ganglionic system was most concerned, to the pit 
of the stomach. It is consistent with this to con- 
ceive, that we are anteriorly more magnetic than we 
are behind. Amulets had their origin in the East, 
the cradle of mankind. With us, these remedies 
are still used by the people ; whilst the hand that 
prepares them — the planet under which the plants 
are gathered — and the childlike faith of the patient, 
are looked upon as essential to the cure desired. 

Mrs. H said, that to exercise magical powers, 

the most entire faith in the invisible world was 
requisite. " It is a faculty of the soul, which is 
sustained by the spirit. There is another sort of 
magicT— of which I shall not speak — which is not 
sustained by the spirit." 

On this subject Eschenmayer, in his '^ Mysteries," 
speaks as follows : — '^ Amulet ! an awful word in 
this century, when reason is fast gaining a victory 
over the superstitions of the middle ages. This re- 
vival of amulets, and the like absurdities, is quite 
enough to prove the folly of this story, or, at least, 
the insanity of the Seherin. How can sensible and 
learned men go so far astray?" So says the re- 
viewer."^ 

There are three remedial powers : the power of 
nature — organic and spiritual powers combined — 
and a purely spiritual power. When the body is 

* Eschenmayer, an eminent psychologist, here speaks ironi- 
cally ; since he appears to have had entire faith in the pheno- 
mena exhibited by the Seherin, which he had himself carefully 
investigated. — Translator. 



96 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

sick, the physician has recourse to the first, with his 
earths, plants, metals, salts, &c. &c. The second is 
this troublesome intrusive magnetism, which makes 
its appearance in so many histories, that it can no 
longer be suppressed, and which, beyond a doubt, 
can often cure, where all other means have failed. 
For this no experienced physician is required, but a 
good and earnest man ; for it is not only the organic 
power of the human hand that heals, but the physi- 
cal influence of the whole man. But there is a still 
higher remedial power, and that is the purely magi- 
cal. The Word, with the name of Jesus Christ, is 
the remedy which, in the Acts of the Apostles, 
chap. iii. 2-18, Peter distinctly teaches us : — ye 
will not acknowledge it, and therefore is all power 
gone from you, and is given to the poor in spirit, to 
exercise henceforth in the fulness of their faith. 

The magic Mrs. H alludes to, as not sus- 
tained by the spirit, is of an evil nature, and is 
practised by those who have subjected themselves to 
evil spirits. To this, the Gospel frequently makes 
allusions ; but reason laughs at such superstitions. 
At all events, the results were in favour of the effi- 
cacy of the amulets. Let those who doubt, go t j 
the spot and inquire ; the witnesses are named, and 
still to be found. If you will not believe their tes- 
timony, neither would you believe, though one came 
from the dead to enforce the truth of the facts we 
record. 

In the early part of Mrs. It 's illness, her 

protecting spirit had exhibited to her^ in a dream, 



MAGNETIC MANIPULATION. 97 

the form of a machine, which, properly used, would 

restore her to health. Mrs. H drew it on paper, 

but the intimation was neglected. After a long 
interval, it was, however, repeated ; and she was 
told, that had the injunction been obeyed in time, 
she would now have been quite well. It was con- 
structed shortly before her death, and the effect of 
it appears to have been galvanic. She said, " It 
charged her nerves ;" and she called it her nerve- 
tuner. 



MAGNETIC MANIPULATION, AND PRESCRIBING FOR DISEASE. 

It is remarkable, that my wife had the same mag- 
netic influence on Mrs. H as myself ; and, by 

joining their fingers, she could raise her from her bed 
as I could, when, of herself, she was quite unable to 
sit up. She frequently had no feeling, or conscious- 
ness of existence, except in the pit of her stomach ; 
she seemed to herself, as if she had neither head, 
hands, nor feet. At these times, she perceived every 
thing with, closed eyes ; but she could not tell whe- 
ther she saw the objects, or felt them. If I, by 
passes, made her lift her eye-lids, she saw nothing 
but me ; her pupils were immovable, but she could not 
tell whether she saw or felt me. It was found very 
injurious to tell her, when she awoke, what she had 
said in her sleep, and she entreated us never to do it. 

On approaching diseased persons, even though she 
did not touch them — and still more, if she did — Mrs. 

G 



98 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

H became conscious of their disease, and felt 

their sensations before they described them — and 
often much to their amazement ; and she was not 
only sensible of their physical state, but also of the 
temporary condition of their minds : the former she 
felt with her body, the latter with her soul. 

'' These facts," says Eschenmayer, in his Mysteries, 
" can all be proved by witnesses. Indeed, I bear it 
my own testimony ; for she accurately divined my 
whole bodily condition, as well as that of a friend — 
and this, by only the contact of the hand. These 
phenomena, however frequently they may be met 
with among somnambulists, still remain for ever re- 
markable. In proportion as we cannot deny, that 
in the hand, or any part of the body, may be con- 
centrated the entire susceptibility of an organism 
(explaining the otherwise disproportionate sensibility 
of a single organ) ; so will it become more and more 
probable, that there exists a latent sense, which can 
penetrate to the very organic centre of the nervous 
system. There is developed, by the mutual approxi- 
mation, a kind of polarity between the two nervous 
systems."^ In this polar relation of nervous system 
to nervous system, the particular organs of the one 
seek out, as it were, and become specially connected 
in polarity with the corresponding organs of the 
other ; so that the unhealthy organ of the (negative) 

* As a shilling and a sovereign, previously indiflFerent, become 
positively and negatively electric, the instant they touch one an- 
other, so as vastly to intensify the physical sensibility of the silver 
piece. — Translator. 



PRESCRIBING FOR DISEASE. • 99 

patient^ mirrors itself in the corresponding organ of 
the (positive) clear-seer ; whence the condition of 
the person is always divined. Sensation, in this case 
sympathetic, is the indifferent conductor between the 
communicating homonymous poles." 

A singular proof of this was offered, by the case of 
a lady, quite unknown to us, who requested me to 

allow Mrs. H to touch her, when she was awake, 

for a severe pain in her liver. Mrs. H described 

her feelings exactly ; but, suddenly becoming very 
red, she added, that she could scarcely see with her 
right eye. The stranger, much surprised, said, that 
she herself had been almost blind, in her right eye, 
for several years ; but, knowing the malady to be 
incurable, she had not mentioned it to me. Mrs. 

H only recovered her sight by degrees, the 

pupil remaining incontractable, as in cases of amau- 
rosis ; she was relieved by persons with sound eyes 
earnestly directing them to her dark eye for several 
minutes. 

On the evening of the 5th of September 1827^ I 

placed in the hand of Mrs. H a ribbon, on which 

was written the name of a sick lady, whose illness, 
as well as herself, were quite unknown to me — this 
ribbon she had doubtless worn, or touched. Mrs. 

H had only held it a few minutes in her hand, 

when she was seized with giddiness, choking, and 
violent vomiting, together with pains — especially in 
the ankle of the left foot — anxieties, and irritation 
of the uvula. The hand was washed, and various 
means tried of removing these symptoms j but she 



100 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

became worse, and fell into a cataleptic state, that 
resembled deaths her body being quite cold. A blis- 
ter I applied did not rise ; and she only recovered 
after some days, and very slowly. On the sixth of 
the month, I read the death of this lady in the news- 
paper ; and it thus appeared^ that she was already 
dead and buried when I gave the ribbon to Mrs. 

H , which accounts for the effects it produced. 

Doubtless, had she been in her sleep-waking state, 
she would have seen the body in the grave. Van 
Helmont speaks of a paralytic woman, who was 
always seized with fits of palsy when she sat on a 
stool, on which her brother, who had died five years 
before, had been wont to sit. " If mankind only 
knew the numbers and the periods," said a som- 
nambule once to me, *' they might heal the worst 
diseases, by the simplest means." 



CITRE OF THE COTJKTEBS VON MALDEGHEM, BY MEANS Ot 
THE SEERESS. 

As in this book facts only are given, we shall 
strictly adhere to them in the following story. 

On the 28th March 1 828, the Count von M 

waited on me, with a letter from his physician. Dr. 
Endres, of Ulm. The letter informed me who the 
bearer was, and said that the Count, having heard of 
the Seeress, wished to consult her about his wife ; 
and he described the case of the invalid as follows : 



CURE OF COUNTESS VON MALDEGHEM. 101 

It appeared that, shortly before her birth, her 
father had been cut down, in front of his own castle, 
by a detachment of Austrian soldiers. It was ex- 
pected that her mother would miscarry, in conse- 
quence of this misfortune ; but, on the contrary, she 
was, in due time, safely delivered ; but the child (the 
invalid now in question) bore the exact features of 
her father, and, for a long time, had the complexion 
of a corpse. This, however, in time, disappeared; 
and the only ill-effect that remained from the acci- 
dent, was an exceedingly excitable, nervous tempera- 
ment. The young lady was educated in a convent, 
and in her twenty-third year married the present 
Count von M . She is a person of very culti- 
vated mind, and of a very amiable and religious 
character. Her illness dates from her second con- 
finement, and consists of a sort of waking dream, in 
which she lives, and in which she is possessed of 
three fixed ideas ; and these form a circle, in which 
her imagination moves : namely, Ist^ A doubt as to 
the identity of her husband and children ; 2dl2/, An 
expectation, or rather earnest longing, for the change 
of her being ; Sdly^ Expectation of some superna- 
tural phenomenon, through whose agency this change 
is to be effected. These are the fundamental notions, 
which, however, undergo many changes and modifi- 
cations. 

In her sixth year, it happened that the Countess, 
overlboked by her attendants, slept for half a day in a 
poppy-field. When she was at length awakened, it 
was found that her memory was so affected, that sbjd 



102 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

only imperfectly recognized her sisters and attendants; 
and for a long time doubted the reality of persons and 
things, before well known to her. She in a great 
degree recovered this attack, but her subsequent 
residence in a cloister, doubtless, had a tendency to 
revive it ; and it was observed, that she could not 
well distinguish betwixt her dreams and the realities 
of her waking life. After her betrothment to the 
Count, she often felt uncertain as to his identity, 
though before the world she sought to conceal these 
abnormal feelings; till, on the 31st October 1827, 
after her confinement, she fell into a sort of dreamy 
life, which the physicians at first . thought proceeded 
from inflammation of the brain, but afterwards pro- 
nounced to be insanity. Her chief idea, in this 
state, was, that she was dead, and irrevocably con- 
demned to waiider through dark fissures, and sub- 
terraneous caves, sufi'ering all manner of torments. 
The persons most dear to her, appeared to her in the 
form of animals — as bears, &c. ; and it was impos- 
sible to make her believe that her place of residence, 
which she much loved, was real — she thought it only 
a picture, or image. She also believed herself — in 
reality so much beloved — to be an object of abhor- 
rence to all men; and, on that account, fled their 
presence. 

After many remedies had been tried in vain, the 
Count brought his unhappy wife to Germany, where, 
however, she still converted every object into a source 
of torture. It is remarkable, that, from the com- 
mencement of her illness, the Countess, in her lucid 



CURE OF COUNTESS VON MALDEGHEM. 103 

moments, always said that her restoration would 
proceed from no physician, but only from her hus- 
band. Under these circumstances, he came to me. 

I explained to him, without reserve, that, for ordin- 
ary maladies, I had little confidence in the prescrip- 
tions of sleep- wakers; but that, in the case of the Coun- 
tess — which seemed to me to be not altogether mania, 
but to have some resemblance to a state of magnetic 
dreaming — the experiment would be worth making. 

On being consulted, Mrs. H took a warm 

interest in the case ; and said she felt that the Coun- 
tess's number was 3, and that the cure must be con- 
ducted accordingly. Three times a-day, for nine 
days, she must put on an amulet, consisting of three 
laurel leaves ; but she must not be told of what the 
amulet consisted. The Count was also to magnetise 
her three times a-day, according to directions given ; 
and, during this time, she was to live very simply, 
taking no exciting food or medicine. Three times 
a-day she was to take a spoonful of the juice of the 

St. John's-wort, mixed with water. Mrs. H 

added, that she must be set to sleep at nine o'clock 
every morning ; and that, if she herself slept at that 
hour, no one must speak to her, as she should be 
praying for the Countess. On the 31st the Count 
returned to Ulm, and commenced the cure of his 
wife, according to these directions, on the morning 
of the 3d of April ; and, on that morning and hour, 

Mrs. H , quite contrary to custom, fell asleep, 

and lay in silence, with her hands crossed, as if in 
prayer. From that time she felt herself en rapport 



104 THE SEERESS OF iPREVORST. 

with the Countess ; and this feeling increased daily, 
till Wednesday the 9th, when, at six o'clock in the 
evening, she cried out, " Cast all thy cares upon 
the Lord, for he careth for thee !" and she then said, 
that she had had a vision, whereby she knew that a 
change had taken place in the Countess. On the 
1 4th, I received the following letter from the Count : 

"Ulm, nth April 1828. 
" Pray, write to me as soon as possible, and say 
whether, on Wednesday the 9th, at six o'clock in the 
evening, you remarked anything particular about 

Mrs. H , and what has occurred with her in 

relation to my wife. I do not ask this without a 
motive; and, together with Dr. E — — , anxiously 
await your answer. 

" C. VON M " 

I could only answer the Count, by relating to 
him what I had already noted in my journal, as I 
have above related it ; to the truths of which there 
were two other witnesses^ besides myself. On the 

morning of the 18th, Mrs. H told us, that she 

had the feeling that the Countess would arrive on 
that day; and this actually happened, the Count 
and she arriving in the evening ; and he related, 
that for six days he had followed the directions 
given by Mrs. H , without observing any parti- 
cular effect from them ; but that at six o'clock on 
the evening of the 9 th — which was Wednesday — the 
Countess had called him from the company with 



CURE OF COUNTESS VON MALDEGHEM. 105 

which he was engaged, and had told him, that on 
the striking of the hour six, she had found herself 

strongly en rapport with Mrs. H , and felt an 

invincible necessity to communicate something to 
her husband, which she had never told any human 
being whatever. After this revelation, the illusions 
that had troubled her wholly disappeared ; she re- 
cognized her husband and children, and also her 

estate ; but felt a great desire to see Mrs. H , 

on which account he had brought her. The Count's 
physician wrote to me, " that the disease appeared to 
be overcome, as if by magic ; and that all that re- 
mained of it was the religious anxiety, that led her 
to believe she had not sujficient faith in the holy 
mysteries of her religion." 

The Countess now spoke of her former life as a 
labyrinth, in which she had been involved, alluded 
frequently to the perplexing dreams which had 
troubled her, and said that she felt herself now in a 
more waking state ; but she would sometimes add — 
" I am not yet quite certain whether this as my 
Charles, and only feel sure of it when I touch his 
arm, and the scar that is upon it." The Count had 
a scar on his arm from a sabre cut. She also often 
fancied that she heard voices mocking her ; and, 
pious as she was, she could neither pray nor enter a 
church. Mrs. H , whom the Countess fre- 
quently visited in her sleep- waking state, directed 
all her efforts to calm her sufferings, by confirming 
her faith ; and she said to her — ^' When I pray with 
you, will you pray with me ? Be assured I will 



106 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

say nothing contrary to your faith." Mrs. H 

was of the Lutheran persuasion, and the Countess a 
Catholic. The Countess asked her how she should 
banish her uneasy thoughts ? Mrs. H— — answered 
— " You cannot banish them, but you will see them 
in a diflferent point of view." For seven days, at 

seven o'clock in the evening, Mrs. H^ prayed 

with the Countess, and the mind of the latter be- 
came more composed ; till at length, suddenly on 
the morning of the 28 th, she awoke her family, and 
declared herself quite well. The abruptness of this 
declaration alarmed me, and I could not help doubt- 
ing the reality of the case. But she assured me I 
had nothing to fear ; and so the event proved, for 
ten years have now elapsed without any return of 
her malady. * 

Acknowledge, here, reader, the power of spiritual 
community, prayer, and a child-like faith. 

^' Rarely in the annals of magnetism," says 
Eschenmayer, " do we find a case in which the 
phenomena are so clearly exhibited, and so extra- 
ordinary a physical-magnetic, or, we may say, 
religious-magical, power is laid open to us. I heard 
the account from the lips of the Countess herself, 
and witnessed her entire conviction that she had 
been cured by the Seeress. This history gives us 
a glimpse into the region of spiritual sympathies, 
which disperses, like soap-bubbles, all our miserable 

* We are informed by a gentleman, who has lately been in 
Germany, that the Countess von M is still alive. — Trans- 
lator. 



DIFFERENT DEGREES OF MAGNETISM. 107 

objections drawn from the laws of nature. My 
friend Kerner calls on mankind to acknowledge the 
power of faith and prayer. But, alas ! they know 
it not. They think to lay open the universe by 
the force of their vaunted reason, and they find it 
but an empty shell. 

" But whereunto shall I liken this generation ? 
It is like unto children sitting in the markets, and 
calling unto their fellows, and saying — ' We have 
piped unto you, and ye have not danced ; we have 
mourned unto you, and ye have not lamented."* 



ON THE DIFFERENT DEGREES OF MAGNETISM, AND THE 
FEELINGS OF THE SEHERIN IN EACH OF THEM. 

The magnetic condition of Mrs. H may be 

divided into four degrees. 

1st, That in which she ordinarily was, wherein 
she appeared to be awake, although she was not, 
but, on the contrary, was in the first stage of her 
inner-life. She said that many persons were in this 
state, of whom it was not suspected, and who were 
not aware of it themselves. 

2dl2/, The magnetic dream. She believed many 
persons to be in this condition who were considered 
insane. 

Sdl^/y In the half-waking state, which exhibited 
itself more especially by her writing and speaking 
the inner language, to which we shall refer by and 



108 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

by. She said that she spoke this language when 
her spirit was in intimate conjunction with her soul. 

4}thy The sleep-waking state, when she was clair- 
voyante, and prescribed. 

But between the third and fourth there appeared 
to me an intermediate one — the cataleptic, wherein 
she lay torpid and cold. She said that, in her half- 
waking state, she thought only with the cerebellum ; 
of the cerebrum she felt nothing — it was asleep. In 
this state she thought more with her soul ; her 
thoughts were clearer, and her spirit had more 
power over her than in her waking state. In the 
perfect sleep-waking state, the spirit had the su- 
premacy ; and, when she was perfectly clairvoyante, 
she said her thoughts proceeded wholly from the 
spirit, and the epigastric region. " In our natural 
state of vigilance, we feel little or nothing of the 
spirit. But man, as he is situated in this world, 
must be governed by the soul. If the spirit had 
free play, what would this world be ? It can pene- 
trate into things above ; and, in his present life, 
man must not know the future." She said this in 
her sleep- waking state. 

Once she said — " I feel the soul in the nerves, 
which I now see quite clearly. But I must know, 
with certainty, whether the soul only hovers over 
the nerves, and what happens to the nerves after 
death." After looking more deeply into herself, 
she said — " The soul continues to live with the 
spirit, and creates around it an ethereal form." 
She said that the magnetic dream had some 



DIFFERENT DEGREES OF MAGNETISM. 109 

resemblance to the sleep-waking state, and was, 
therefore, not without its significance ; but it pro- 
ceeded more from the brain. When awaking from 
this state, she remembered what she had dreamt — 
which was not the case in the half- waking, or clear- 
seeing state. She often spoke out, and related her 
dream, whilst it was passing through her brain, 
sometimes in yerse, and sometimes dramatically.* 
She distinguished these dreams from those of natural 
sleep, by their being more regular and distinct. She 
could not be awakened from them ; but, if they were 
- nagfcugifliliy interrupted, the dream was resumed the 
next night, exactly at the point at which it had 
been broken off. 

Mrs. H said *^ that the sleep-waking state is 

the life and act of the inner- man, and contains. in 
itself a proof of a future existence, and of re-union 
after death. It is the internal activity of man which 
is unawakened in persons in their normal condition, 
and which is wholly asleep in those whose life is 
centered altogether in the brain, who, being uncon- 
scious of their sympathetic life, never listen to its 
voice ; though, if man considered rightly, he would 
find this his true guide. The sleep-waking pro- 
duced by magnetic passes is a sure remedy — for, in 
clairvoyance, the inner-man steps forward and in- 
spects the outer, which is not the case either in sleep 

* Mrs. H made a great many verses ; but, as they are not 

poetical in the original, and would be still less so translated, we 
omit them. — Translator. 



Mo THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

or dreaming. Clairvoyance is a state of the most 
perfect vigilance, because then the inner spiritual 
man is disentangled and set free from the body. I 
would rather, therefore, denominate sleep-waking 
the coming forward of the inner-man, or the spiritual 
growth of man. At these moments the spirit is quite 
free and able to separate itself from the soul and 
body, and go where it will, like a flash of lightning. 
The sleep-waker is then incapable of any ungodly 
act ; though his soul be impure, he can neither lie 
nor deceive. I should call this the third stage of 
clear-seeing. In the second stage, which is inferior, 
the soul and spirit come forth together — not the 
spirit alone, as in the former. There is a still in- 
ferior state, in which the soul unites itself with the 
spirit ; and, as no soul is quite pure, the seeing is 
here imperfect. The lowest stage of all may be 
considered as an excited condition of the nervous 
system, and is a state which appears more or less in 
ordinary life. It resembles that prophetic power 
that some men, doubtless, are endowed with ; but, 
in the case of a sleep-waker, the faculty is stronger, 
and more regular. 

" In the normal condition, the soul dwells chiefly in 
the brain, and the spirit in the epigastric region. In 
the magnetic state, the soul approaches, more or less, 
the seat of the spirit. In those who only live their 
external life, the soul has the supremacy ; and the 
highest state of spiritual perfection is when the spirit 
can free itself wholly from the soul," 



SUN^SPHERE AND LIFE-SPHERE. Ill 

It will be seen hereafter, that there is a great 
difference betwixt this separation of the spirit in 
sleep-waking and in death. 



THE SUN-SPHERE AND LIFE-SPHERE. 

THE CONDITION OP THE SEERESS WHEN THESE SPHERES 
WERE DEVELOPED WITHIN HER. 

On the 18th October 1827, while in a sleep- 
waking state^ produced by twenty-one laurel berries, 

Mrs. H told us that the following evening at 

seven o'clock, would be the last time we should see 
her in a perfect state of clairvoyance ; that hence- 
forth she should be more awake to external life, 
and that we should be all as strangers to her ; that 
the appearance of her eyes would become more 
natural ; and that the past would . be to her as a 
dream. I asked her if the spectres would no longer 
appear to her ? She answered that that did not 
depend on her sleep-waking state. They would 
appear as before, but would seem strange to her ; and 
their appearance would frighten her. In the night 
she was extremely ill, and said that there seemed to 
be a struggle within her, as of two fighting — one of 
whom told her she was in Weinsberg, and the other 
that she was in Lowenstein. In the one case, the 



112 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

objects around her were familiar ; and, in the other, 
they became strange. On the morning of the 19th, 
she found it very difficult to speak her ordinary 
language, feeling an impulse to speak high German, 
and to address every one as thouJ^ She said that 
she felt as if she was about to lose her soul, or that 
something was dying within her. 

On the 19th, at seven o'clock in the evening, 
being in the sleep- waking state, she said, after silent 
prayer — '^ I feel that I awake this day from a long 
dream, which has lasted from the time I came here, 
when you chided me ; and I thought there was no 
longer anything human about me. I had hitherto 
relied on human aid, but now felt myself deserted, 
and retired entirely into myself. From this time I 
have not lived a single hour on the earth, however 
much I appeared awake. How fearful will it be 
to me when I awake. I shall immediately exclaim 
that I have been dreaming of many persons. When 
the ghosts I have been accustomed to see come to 
me, I shall not recognize them, but shall ask them 
all the questions I have asked them before ; and 
seeing them when I am awake will alarm me ; — but 
I am aware, by the state of my optic nerves, that I 
shall still see them. The nerves of healthy people 
often enable them to perceive them also ; but I see 
more than I speak of — I penetrate quite into the 
world of spirits. No one must say anything to me 
of my long sleep ; but they must prepare me for the 

* It is to be observed that sleep-wakers cast off all conven- 
tional customs. 



SUN-SPHERE AND LIFE-SPHERE. 113 

spectres, or I shall be too much frightened when I 
see them. I feel as if it were now the night of my 
arrival here ; and, when I wake, I shall ask for my 
sister Amelia, who was then with me." After 
praying, she allowed us to awake her, which we did 
by touching her with the mountain crystal. Her 
first inquiry was for her sister, to whom she wished 
to relate her long dream. However much we had 
been about her, we seemed all strangers to her now ; 
she only recognized those whom she had known be- 
fore the 26th October 1826. She was extremely 
surprised at the improvement in her own health, and 
especially to find that she had no longer the miliary 
fever. We told her that the physician had given 
her a powder which had occasioned her to sleep 
through the winter and summer. She wept at this — 
expressed sorrow at having passed so much time in 
a dream, and was extremely uneasy at the strange- 
ness of her chamber, and the novelty of every thing 
about her. She related that she had had a great 
alarm in the night : about one o'clock, a figure 
had entered her room, and placed himself by her 
bedside, saying — '•' Tell me something consoling." 
She was much frightened, and asked him what he 
required of her ; and he answered that he had 
visited her frequently; and then she related what 
will be found in a further part of this volume. On 
the following day she was still very uneasy, and at 
times almost in despair, from being unable to re- 
concile herself to her new condition. It was a great 
error that officious persons had been permitted to 



114 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

tell her too many particulars of her magnetic life ; 
she was, consequently, very much dissatisfied here, 
and extremely desirous of returning home. She 
seemed to recollect some persons by looking hard 
in their eyes ; but all traces of what she had heard, 
felt, smelt, or tasted, during the latter months, was 
wholly obliterated. She said that seeing appeared 
to her a more spiritual faculty than hearing ; and 
that, though the latter had made no impression on 
her, the former had. The only flower of which she 
retained an idea was the auricula, and the odour of 
that she seemed to have imbibed through her eyes ; 
and of all the poems she had read in the course of 
her life, she remembered only one of Goethe's. In 
appearance, she was much the same as she had been ; 
but her voice was weaker, and she was less able to 
leave her bed than before. Minerals and plants 
continued to produce the same effects on her ; but 
my magnetic power over her was considerably 
diminished. However, it did not appear to us that 
she was yet wholly out of the magnetic sphere ; and 
it seemed probable that there would yet be another 
awakening. 



THE SPHERES. 



Mrs. H said, that the time that had elapsed 

when she was asleep appeared to her a circle ; and 



THE SPHERES. 115 

tliBre seemed to be several of these circles through 
which she had passed. On the first of these were 
seven stars, which were the dwellings of the blessed 
of inferior grades ; the second was the moon, which 
was very cold and disagreeable. The right side of 
it is the dwelling of those who are to be blest, many 
of whom come out of the mid region. She described 
many other circles, in one of which she saw her pro- 
tecting spirit, and, in another, the souls of animals. 
Each circle seemed to embrace a year. 

She also said that, in the sleep-waking state, when 
the spirit separated itself from the body, it left be- 
hind it the soul with all its sins upon it ; but the 
spirits of the dead are not equally pure, for they 
carry the soul and its sins with them. If this were 
the case with the sleep-waker, he would never 
awake. And although the spirit, in its perfect 
purity, is incapable of deceit, yet, if it be not quite 
free of the soul, it may, by too much questioning, be 
brought to lie. 

Under these circles, which the Seherin called 
the orbit of the sun, or sun-sphere, she saw others 
which she called the orbit of life, or life-sphere, and 
sometimes her soul. These seemed, amongst other 
things, to denote the different degrees of goodness ; 
and there were signs and numbers upon them. 
The numbers, with which she had special relation, 
were ten and seventeen. The first, ten, is the in- 
variable number of all mankind, and, at the same- 
time, the terrestrial number. The second number is 
not constant, but differs with each individual — it is 



116 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

the inner number, and the heavenly one. Both 
these fundamental numbers are fundamental words : 
in ten lies the fundamental word for man as a 
human being, and for his relation to this world ; in 
the other number seventeen lies the word for that 
individual inner-life which he will take with him 
after death. " Let not this^ however," she added, 
" induce the persuasion that one who does evil was 
destined to do so through this number. The choice 
of good and evil is free to all men ; but he who 
gives himself up to evil loses his number, and is de- 
livered over to his wickedness and its consequences." 
The less the soul is under the influence of the body^ 
and the more it is governed by the spirit, the better 
we are. 

The second number, which each man has, is con- 
nected with the duration of his life. If so many 
evil accidents come from without as to overpower 
it, he dies ; when it is not disturbed, old age is 
attained. 

In her sleep-waking state, Mrs. H frequently 

spoke in a language unknown to us, which seemed 
to bear some resemblance to the Eastern tongues. 
She said that this language was the one which Jacob 
spoke, and that it was natural to her and to all 
men. It was very sonorous ; and, as she was per- 
fectly consistent in her use of it, those who were 
much about her gradually grew to understand it. 
She said, by it only could she fully express her 
innermost feelings ; and that, when she had to ex- 
press these in German^ she was obliged first to 



THE SPHERES. 1 1 7 

translate them from this language. It was not from 
her head^ but from the epigastric region, that it pro- 
ceeded. She knew nothing of it when she was 
awake. The names of things in this language, she 
told us, expressed their properties and quality. 
Philologists discovered in it a resemblance to the 
Coptic, Arabic, and Hebrew : for example, the word 
Elschadda% which she often used for God, signifies, 
in Hebrew, the self-sufficient, or all-powerful. The 
word dalmachan appears to be Arabic ; and bianachli 
signifies, in Hebrew, / am sighing^ or in sighs. 

Here follow a few of the words of this inner- 
language^ and their interpretations : — Handacadi., 
physician ; alentana^ lady ; chlann^ glass ; schmado^ ^ 
moon ; nohin^ no ; nochiane^ nightingale ; hianna 
jftna,, many coloured flowers ; moy^ how ; toi^ what ; 
optini poga^ thou must sleep ; mo li arato^ I rest, 
&c. &c. 

The written character of this language was always 
connected with numbers. She said that words with 
numbers had a much deeper and more' comprehen- 
sive signification than without. She often said, in 
her sleep- waking state^ that the ghosts spoke this 
language; for although spirits could read the 
thoughts, the soul, to which this language belonged, 
took it with it when it went above ; because the 
soul formed an ethereal body for the spirit. 

Besides the range pf numbers, which we have 
alluded to, as connected with the inner -life, there 
appeared to be another of a deeper and higher signi- 
fication, the explanation of which she could not give. 



118 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

All I know relating to it is, that she was one day 
trying to translate her own name into a figure, when 
she burst into tears; and when I asked her the 
reason, she said that she had suddenly come upon a 
much deeper secret connected with numbers, in 
which she had involuntarily discovered, in her name, 
the number and hour of her death, but that happily 
she had, as suddenly lost it again. I told her I 
thought it impossible that any one's death could be 
calculated by their name ; but she answered me 
earnestly — " When you die, you will learn that it 
is possible." 

She expressed great satisfaction to Eschenmayer, 
that he felt and understood the religious signification 
of the spheres. 

Mrs. H- said that, as in the sun's orbit, or 

sphere, was comprised this world, so, in the orbit of 
life lay the presentiment of a higher, which existed 
in every man. 

In clear-seeing, the spirit quits the orbit of life, 
and enters the centre of the sun's orbit ; and then 
all things become visible, freed from the veil, or 
screen, which otherwise conceals them. A som- 
nambule can only describe what belongs to our sun s 
orbit, as the sun, moon, earth, and other planets, 
and the mid-region, which is the ethereal space 
around us. No somnambule has described what be- 
longs to the deeper sphere of the life-orbit. 

The Seeress said, that the separation of the spirit 
from soul and body in sleep-waking, bore a great 
resemblance to death, but was not the same. When 



THE SPHERES. 119 

the spirit quits the body, in the last moments, it 
becomes weak and helpless — it cannot draw the soul 
after it, and can only wait. The dying person is 
then unconscious of all that happens — the future is 
hidden from him, and he can no longer express him- 
self. When, previously to this moment, a dying 
person declares that he is now certain of the exist- 
ence of a future state, &c., it is because the soul, 
being no longer under the direction of the brain, 
recovers its natural power of clear-seeing, and hope 
of the future^ which had been before obscured. 
When the spirit has quitted the body, the soul 
knows it can no longer stay^ but struggles also to 
be free. This is the moment of the death-agony; 
and, at this moment, instead of the now powerless 
spirit, the spirits of the blest stand by to aid the 
soul ; and the struggle is longer or shorter, in cases 
of natural death, in proportion to the ease or diffi- 
culty with which the soul can separate itself from 
earthly things. 

With respect to the nerve-spirit, or nervous prin- 
ciple of vitality, she said, that through it the soul 
was united to the body, and the body with the 
world. The facility with which this spirit freed 
itself in her case, was the cause of her abnormal 
condition. The nerve-spirit is immortal, and ac- 
companies the soul after death, unless where the soul 
is perfectly pure, and enters at once amongst the 
blessed. By its means the soul constructs an airy 
form around the spirit. It is capable of increase, 
or growth, after death ; and by its means the spirits, 



120 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

who are yet in the mid-region, are brought into 
connexion with a material in the atmosphere, which 
enables them to make themselves felt and heard by 
man^ and also to suspend the property of gravity, 
and move heavy articles. When a person dies in a 
perfectly pure state — which is rarely the case — he 
does not take this nerve-spirit with him ; though 
indestructible, it remains with the body, and, at the 
general resurrection, is united to the soul, and con- 
structs it an aerial form. Blessed spirits, to whom 
this nerve-spirit is no longer attached, cannot make 
themselves heard or felt — they appear no more. 
The purer the spirit is, the higher grade it holds in 
the mid-region, or intermediate state, and the more 
entirely it is separated from the nerve-spirit. 

From the above disclosures of the Seeress, in her 
sleep-waking state, it would appear that, when the 
spirit of a clairvoyant goes forth into the centre, all 
things within our solar system are unveiled to it. 
This clear-seeing has become dark to man, in pro- 
portion as his orbit has deviated from the centre. 
He now no longer understands the language of na- 
ture ; numbers and names of things are lost to him, 
and, with infinite labour, he can only acquire a 
glimpse of their properties. Schubert and the Seeress 
seem to agree in this — that what is now learning^ 
was formerly intuitive knowledge. The mystery and 
holiness attached to numbers, in the early ages of 
the world, as seen in the prophets, and the ancient 
Indian astronomical tables, appear to be connected 
with this lost science. Doubtless, the early systems 



THE SPHERES. 121 

of philosophy, especially that of Plato, was the off- 
spring of this intuitive knowledge ; and the sinii- 
larity between the system of Pythagoras, regarding 
numbers — as far as we know of it — and that of the 
Seeress, is remarkable. Plato also says, " The soul 
is immortal, and has an arithmetical origin, as the 
body has a geometrical one. . It is the picture or 
representation of a universal spirit ; has motion, and 
penetrates into space, from the centre of the body. 
It is, however, divided betwixt two accordant-inter" 
mediate regions^ and forms two united spheres," 
That which Plato denominates " the motion of the 
soul,'* the Seherin calls the '' life-sphere -" and what 
he calls " the motion of the whole, and of the pla- 
nets,'* is with her the " sun-sphere." " By this means," 
says Plato, " the soul is placed in connexion with 
what is external — apprehends what exists — and sub- 
sits harmoniously ; because it has within itself the 
elements of perfect harmony." 

In numbers originates the harmony of the world, 
and the generation of all things. He who loses his 
number, loses all community with the good, and dis- 
order and confusion arie his portion. 

Is not this what our Seeress says ? and yet she 
never heard of Plato. Compare her also to Pytha- 
goras, who says that numbers are the elements of 
all things, and of all knowledge ; and who, by them, 
solved enigmas unknown in modern arithmetic. S. 
Martin, Novalis, and Swedenborg — of whom Mrs. 

H knew nothing whatever — say the same thing. 

So does the last of these admit the existence of a 



122 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

higher sun (her sun of grace) than that we see ; 
from which shines a spiritual light, as from the other 
a natural light. Eschenmayer says, in regard to 
this revelation of the Seeress^ '^ There are two kinds of 
suns : one which we see, and which gives us light ; 
and which is confined to our planet-system — a mere 
drop in the ocean. But there is another — a central 
sun — which we do not see, but from which all the 
stars receive their light/** 

Ennemoser says, ^^ If we imagine the natural 
world, and all that is in it, to be a sphere — as it 
really is — we shall find it has neither beginning nor 
end ; it is boundless, and the past and the future are 
comprised in it. (So says the Seeress, " In this 
sphere I could go backwards and forwards, and see 
the past and the future.") The whole world is pene- 
trated with light, and man is the mirror of the divine 
radiance (Abglanz.) This, according to our Seeress, 
is the soul, which is the mirror of every thing that 
exists. In this mirror all objects would be reflected, 
were they not hidden by the thick mist of earthly 
vapours. The inner-sense in man, is the burning 
light — (der Geist) — the spirit ; which, however, can- 
not always shine through the thick husk of the body, 
but, like the internal fires of the earth, can only 
break through at certain points ; that is, only in 

*■ This suggests the hypothesis which has been advanced by 
certain popular writers on astronomy, that as the earth is the 
centre of the terrestrial, Jupiter of the jovial, and the sun of the 
solar system ; so there may exist a great centre of the stellar 
system itself, as one vast whole. — Translator. 



THE SPHERES. 1 23 

certain men — not in the whole race. The day will 
come, when the whole earth will be lighted by its 
internal fires ; so will man cast ofi" his thick husk, 
and be dissolved in the universal light. 

It is remarkable, that the Seeress placed the souls 
of animals in the dream-ring — and it is true that 
theirs appears to be a dreamy life — whilst, at the 
same time, she seems to make this ring the repre- 
sentment of the ganglionic system, with its magnetic 
instincts — sympathy — antipathy — foresight, which 
are so prominent in the animal kingdoms, especially 
amongst birds and insects. There is also reason to 
believe, that animals — as horses, dogs, &c. — are less 
isolated from the spiritual world than human beings 
are ; and that they are more sensible of the proxi- 
mity of spirits. Old age and childhood seem like- 
wise to belong to this circle ; as do saints, poets, and 
l)rophets, and the infancy of the human race. The 
dreams of the aged recur mostly to their early years; 
which may, perhaps, indicate that they are returning 
to that sphere which they had abandoned. That 
compartment of the mid-region which is nearer to, 
and lower than the earth, where human souls are 
below the souls of animals, our Seeress places beyond 
the dream-ring. There is another compartment 
within the dream-ring, under which lies that appro- 
priated to animals ; and this may accord with the 
fact, that spirits from this lower region sometimes 
appeared, not only brutified, but actually in the 
guise of animals. » 

Our Seeress places hell below the external mid- 



124 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

region ; and the universal belief in a heaven, a hades, 
and a hell, may be explained by the fact, that each 
human soul is a mirror, in which every man^ who 
looks within, will see all that exists, reflected with 
more or less distinctness. 



THE INNER-LANGUAGE. 

With respect to the inner- language, the Seherin 
said, that one word of it frequently expressed more 
than whole lines of ordinary language ; and that, 
' after death, in one single symbol or character of it, 
man would read his whole life. It is constantly 
observed, that persons in a sleep-waking state, and 
those who are deep in the inner-life, find it impos- 
sible to express what they feel in ordinary language. 
Another somnambule used often to say to me, when 
she could not express herself, ^' Can no one speak 
to me in the language of nature ?" 

The Seherin observed by Mayers said, that to 
man, in the magnetic state, all nature was disclosed, 
spiritual and material ; but that there were certain 
things which could not be well expressed in words, 
and thus arose apparent inconsistencies and errors. 
In the archives of animal magnetism, an example is 
given of this peculiar speech ; the resemblance of 
which to the eastern languages, doubtless, arises from 
its being a remnant of the early language of man- 
kind. Thus, sleep-wakers cannot easily recall the 



RELATION OF THE SPIRIT. 125 

names of persons and things, and they cast away all 
conventionalities of speech. Mayer s Seherin says, 
that as the eyes and ears of man are deteriorated by 
the fall, so he has lost, in a great degree, the lan- 
guage of his sensations ; but it still exists in us, and 
would be found, more or less, if sought for. Every 
sensation or perception has its proper figure or sign, 
and this we can no longer express. 

In order to describe these perceptions, Mrs. H 

constructed figures, which she called '' her sun- 
sphere," '^ her life-sphere," and so forth. 

Many instances, proved how perfect her memory 
for this inner-language was. On bringing her the 
lithograph of what she had written a year before, 
she objected that there was a dot too much over one 
of the signs ; and, on referring to the copy which I 
had by me, I found she was right. She had no copy 
herself. 



RELATION OF THE SPIRIT, SOUL, AND BODY. 

As long as the spirit maintains the sovereignty, 
the true, the beautiful, and the good reside within it 
in complete harmony. The soul preserves its perfect 
equipoise ; and all its functions of thinking, feeling, 
and willing, partake of the harmony of the spirit. 
The superior region of the soul rules the inferior ; 
and the intercourse of this with the body, and of the 
body with the world, is so ordered, that the welfare 



126 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

of the whole is undisturbed. In order to maintain 
this equipoise, the soul, during its temporal exist- 
ence, is endowed with freedom by God ; and it rests 
with man to make what use of it he will. When 
itself too much enslaved by the world, the soul draws 
the spirit after it. As the soul grows mundane, the 
spirit becomes troubled ; and, when it is drawn out 
of its first sphere, good is mixed with evil, and the 
moral laws are neglected. But when it has passed 
out of the second, the beautiful is alloyed by the 
odious, and the feelings become impure and corrupt. 
The third ring passed, then step in error and folly, 
and take the place of truth. The spirit has become 
subject to the soul, and the soul to the body ; and 
the fruits are deceit, sensuality, lies, wickedness, and 
self-seeking. When the equipoise is thus lost, it is 
very difficult to recover it, and by religion alone can 
the balance be restored. 

Mrs. H said, that the insane were those 

whose spirit was taken captive by the soul and body ; 
and that the cretins are those in whom the spirit lies 
half-bound. 



PHYSICAL WORTH. 



Every man receives, at his generation and birth, 
a faculty, which comprises the law of his develop- 
ment, and the duration of his life. This is expressed 
by a number ; and, if no prejudicial influences, either 



MORAL WORTH. 127 

from the soul or the external world, operate against 
him, he reaches his appointed term ; but if the re- 
verse is the case, the number is earlier exhausted, and 
his life is curtailed. There is a daily waste of vita- 
lity, which is also daily compensated; but, after 
middle age, the bodily organism loses its energy and 
nutritive powers, and gradually declines. Higher 
than the appointed number life cannot reach ; but it 
may be shortened — and is, in most instances. All 
violent emotions, passions, and sensualities, occasion 
loss to the animal economy ; and a mortal fever ex- 
hausts at once the number, that had else lasted out 
many years. 



MORAL WORTH. 



As physical occurrences, in reference to the body, 
are inscribed in the sun-sphere, so are moral occur- 
rences, in reference to the soul, daily, monthly, and 
yearly noted. Man thinks, feels, acts, wishes, en- 
joys unceasingly ; he has daily a hundred opportu- 
nities of doing right : if he make good use of them, 
it is his merit — if he neglect them, his fault. 

But worse than the neglecting of good, is the 
doing of evil ; and all being entered and set down, 
there is a constant moral loss or gain ; which, as it 
is to endure for eternity, is of much more importance 
than the other account, which is but temporary. For 
the duration of our physical life there is a number, 



128 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

but for our moral merit or demerit there is none 
determinate ; ^ because these extend beyond death, 
atid because that perfectibility which springs from 
freedom is exalted above all finite number. Imme- 
diately after death, that natural language, which 
lies in every man, is revealed to him^ and he reads 
at once his whole life, with its acts and omissions, in 
its characters. The account is engraven on his heart 
in figures of fire ; and woe to him whose demerits 
weigh down the balance — who has died unrepentant 
in his sins — untrusting in God, and unbelieving in 
his Redeemer. 

[We here insert a compendious account of the 
spheres, with which we have been favoured by a 
scientific friend. — Translator.] 



THE SPHERES THEMSELVES. 



[On the third day, the Seeress designed two com- 
plicated spheres, in an incredibly short time, without 
instruments, with great precision, and full of related 
lines. A pair of compasses, which Kerner gave her, 
thinking to facilitate her work, only embarrassed her, 
a,nd caused her to deviate. She spun these intricate 
webs, like a spider, with unerring instinct. 

These drawings she interpreted to Kerner with 
simplicity and minuteness. The first of them she 
called her sun-sphere, or the solar orbit of her life ; 



THE SPHERES THEMSELVES. 129 

and she often repeated, that every one carries such 
a sphere of relative life around that which she re- 
presented as his proper life -sphere. This sun«sphere 
is rather a series of spheres, drawn around one centre. 
The successive spheres alternate in their properties, 
in the same manner as the alternate spheres of re- 
pulsion and attraction that surround the sun, and are 
commonly represented to the popular reader as the 
centrifugal and centripetal forces of that luminary. 
It is evidently this analogy, that compelled Mrs. 
H to symbolize her enunciations on this sub- 
ject in language belonging to the sun, and other 
celestial bodies. 

The circumference of the best marked of all these 
orbits, seemed to come out from the pit of the sto- 
mach — to lead over the breast — and pass round close 
by the left side. This is nearly a sphere of ten 
inches diameter, described round the ideal centre of 
the sympathetic system of nerves. It is an ideal 
globe, placed in the left- front-side ; and including 
within it the heart — the roots of the lungs — part of 
the stomach — and, in fine, the principal ganglionic 
plexuses of nerves. 

Outside this is a boundless sphere, like the outer- 
most sphere of repulsion of a sun. This boundless 
one is really the first ; but that which has been just 
described is always called the first, or great orh'it, 
by the Seeress. Within the latter are six other 
orbits, successively — 2d, 3d, 4th, 5th, 6th. 

The first (or, as she once calls it, the sixth, in- 
verting the order she afterwards follows) was accom- 



130 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

panied, at its circumference^ with a sensation, that 
suggested the conception of something higher than 
nerve, which she calls nerve-spirit."^ The area of 
this first orbit was divided into twelve parts or seg- 
ments, and marked by a great many points in its 
periphery. In the outer half — L e, that which lay 
outside the pit of the stomach and breast — seemed 
to lie the work-day world of man. She there felt 
the spirit (Geist) of all with whom she had acquaint- 
ance^ but without their bodies or their names. Kerner, 
least of all, was sensible to her as a body ; she saw 
him, like a blue flame, at a particular point of the 
orbit, moving perpetually in the sphere, accompanied 
by his wife a little farther off.t This first orbit 
was to her like a wall, beyond which she could not 
move ; shut up within it, she was home-sick. Her 
consolation was, that she could speak to man the 
better from that withdrawment. She felt fixed to a 
particular point in the sphere, without power to ad- 
vance ; but regularly, at mid-day and midnight, she 
was pushed half a point forward, making one point 
in the twenty-four hours. The day seemed to impel 
or shove her. 

In the outer orbit, over which seven stars seemed 
to shine, she was at ease and happy ; she spoke into 

* This appears to us to be nothing more than the abstract idea 
of nervous influence impersonated, as waking speculators are 
prone to do. — Translator. 

*|- It must be remembered, that Mrs. H was in intimate 

rapport with Kerner's wife, w^ho had considerable magnetic power 
over hfer.— Translator. 



THE SPHERES THEMSELVES. 131 

the world from it^ and thought Kerner alone heard 
her. In the second orbit she found it cold and re- 
pulsive. She spoke not — only swam hither and 
thither over it — and twice saw into it, but only what 
was too horrid to remember ; yet this orbit had the 
light of the moon in it. She averred that these 
seven stars signify nothing else but the stars, and 
the cold orbit the veritable moon. " These stars are 
the abodes of blessed ones of a lower grade." The 
second cold orbit is the abode of such as grow (i. e. are 
in the process of growing) holy ; but that only on 
its right side. 

The third orbit is sun-clear, and its middle point far 
clearer. In it she seemed to peer, with other spirits, 
down into an impenetrable deep of clearness^ which 
she expressed as the sun of grace. Here she spoke 
out into the world, as in the first ; and, still more 
than in the first, nobody seemed to hear her but 
Kerner — she was still more isolated from all but him. 
In its clearness she saw her conductress, (or protect- 
ing spirit,) except in its too bright mid-point, 
and from this orbit the prescriptions appeared to 
proceed^ she knew not how ! This is the dream- 
ring. In it she saw an intermediate region, and a 
region for the spirits of beasts — the latter undermost 
— all clearer than our day, with an uniform clear- 
ness, without light and shadow. 

When she wished to penetrate to the central orbits, 
she had to bethink herself of the month, day, hour, 
minute, and second in which she was ; and then, 
whilst reading them ofi*, she seemed to ride into these 



132 THE SEERESS OP PREVORST. 

three innermost orbits as on a straight sunbeam. In 
all these she could see both past and future, history 
and prophecy. 

She asserted, that no sooner has a sleep-waker 
seen thus into the middle-point of the sun-sphere, 
through the successive orbits, than in an instant he 
is incapable of falsehood — he is a pure spirit. The 
spirit goes out from him all alone ; whilst the soul 
remains behind, with his sins, in the body. 

The spirit of one dead is not a pure spirit, because 
it is accompanied by the soul and its sins ; whereas, 
with a sleep-waker, (as such,) it is as if the fall of 
man had never taken place, else would he never 
awake. A sleep-waker, however, only in the first 
sphere — at the seven stars, where the soul still ac- 
companies the spirit — may be seduced into deception, 
especially by harassing questions. Of the seventh 
and boundless sphere, which she expressed as a 
coming year, (each orbit being a figurative year or 

revolution,) Mrs H only felt it was not like the 

rest. Pursuing her allegorical way of speaking, she 
said, that every seven years these solar orbits fell off 
her, and their entire contents could be expressed in a 
cipher, or a point, in which all the hours, minutes, and 
seconds of the seven years should be contained. So can 
one, at death, review his whole life in one figure. 



Respecting these six spheres, and the seventh 
unbounded one, she said a great many singularly 
coherent things besides. The Pythagorean numbers 
7 and 3, with the multiples of the latter, are con- 



THE LIFE-SPHERE PROPER. 133 

istantly repeated in the sketches. She told Kerner 
how to magnetize her for the current month, finding 
the directions in the orbits. But the student, de- 
sirous and capable of entering into this subject, must 
have recourse to a sedulous perusal of the original 
for further details. The mathematical form, and the 
numerical precision of this revelation, are surpassed 
in interest only by the fact, that the diagrams sha- 
dow forth some of the profoundest truths in the 
highest departments of physical science. 



THE LIFE-SPHERE PROPER. 

Under, or within these successive orbits of the 
sun-sphere of life, appeared to lie another — the life- 
sphere proper — with thirteen three-quarter segments, 
instead of the twelve possessed by the orbits of the 
former. She often called this orbit of life her soul. 
The sense of its existence was not so oppressive to 
her as that of the former. As this work-day world 
lay in the sun-sphere, so in this lies something more 
exalted than itself— something which descends on 
every man from a higher world. As she spoke out 
her sensations when in the atmosphere, so here she 
saw them represented in figures and diagrams. In ar : 
word, this life-ring is the seat of the soul, (Seele,) 
and the place of its confluence with the spirit, (Geist.) 
(By the word soul, is signified the abstract idea of 
the sum of all the intellectual and moral faculties ; 



\ 



134 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

and by the word spirit^ is indicated the pure reason 
— the conscience — the intuitive sense of the good, 
true, and beautiful — the over-soul — in one word, the 
Holy Ghost; all which are synonymous.) Here, in 
this ring, she learns a number of well-known maxims 
of religion, and states them in spherical figures of 
speech. Two numbers rule the sphere, 10 and 17 : 
The 1 is a constant number for all mankind, and is, 
at the same time, the earthly one, by means of which 
the spirit can go out into the external world ; and 
the 1? is the celestial and inner number, and may 
vary with every man. This varying number is a 
sort of balance, keeping his account with heaven for 
good and evil ; and, if the evil so far outweighs the 
good, he may lose his number altogether. 

It is impossible to give the reader a more detailed 
account of this sj)here, and its revelations, without a 
full translation : suffice it to say, that it is just the 
enunciation of the principles of a more spiritual 
Christianity than is usual in any country, and that 
given in the form of a spherical diagram, with middle- 
point, radii, circumferences, compartments, and nu- 
merical signs. She even invents symbols to express 
her numbers. She indites poetical addresses to God, 
and descriptions of the sacred sphere itself, when 
residing there, withdrawn from all that lives beyond 
herself. She is a Pythagorean to the core. " It 
seems to me," she says, " that every man has such 
numbers and words appointed him from his birth, 
but no two the same words and numbers ; I mean, 
that such orbits go through the whole of nature — 



EXPLANATION OF THE SUN-SPHERE. 135 

including all that live and weave — pervading all 
creation, from beginning to end." 

Here, in fine, she felt her true inner-life to be led, 
with figures, signs, and words for itself — here she 
spoke in an unknown tongue, creating sonorous, as 
well as visible symbols, for the expression of her 
spiritual experiences. In truth, here she resembled 
those enthusiasts who have appeared, from time to 
time, in connexion with almost every form of reli- 
gion ; yet there is a singular difference : they rave, 
but she is calm — they are often ridiculous, but she is 
admirable throughout — they are, not unfrequently, 
terrible to behold, but she is sublimely accessible — 
above all, they are incoherent ; but she represents 
her experiences and opinions in the shape of a physico - 
mathematical diagram, recording her inward obser- 
vations from day to day.]] 



EXPLANATION OP THE SUN-SPHERE DESCRIBED BY THE 
SEERESS* 

This sphere was unfolded during the last magnetic 
year, from Christmas 1826 to Christmas 1827, when, 
according to the Seeress, it melted away, and gave 
place to a new one ; whilst all that had been per- 
manently good in its experiences was woven into the 
life-sphere. 

The difference between common and magnetic 
vigilance, is the same as between the intellectual and 



136 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

the spiritually intuitive life. In the former, a man 
has laid claim to an outward existence, and prose- 
cutes all sorts of intercourse with nature and man- 
kind ; in the latter, having abdicated this objectivity, 
he strains down into the deeps of spiritual life alone. 
In the one, the spiritual faculty is dispersed (like the 
radiance of the sun) over the external world ; in the 
other, it is concentrated into a focus, which illumines 
all the sphere of existence. In the first, the varied 
products of the mind can be summoned before the 
consciousness, at will ; in the second, the produc- 
tiveness of the mind is in abeyance, and we are 
allowed a glance into that mystery of numbers, with 
which the spirit eliminates its products. 

Somnambulists say, " I feel — I behold ; " never, 
" I understand — I trace — I discover." Their com- 
munications are not like knowledge acquired, a pos- 
teriore, by the understanding ; but like direct intui- 
tions. Every time a clear -seer pronounces a number, 
she beholds it (painted) within : the number passes 
out of the native system of numbers, into the pre- 
sence of the consciousness, (and that by a peculiar 
internal impulse,) where it then stands suffused with 
light. When she would speak out of the unknown 
natural language, she looks upon the characters — 
feels their meaning — and then translates the words 
into her ordinary language;, whatever that may be. 
When she prescribes for herself, the properties of all 
things are clear to her ; but only one — or say a few 
— accord with the internal requirements, and these 
she at once selects. When she foretells the time, 



EXPLANATION OF THE SUN-SPHERE. 187 

frequency, and violence of her own crises, she looks 
upon her organical type. 

In all these states, the will is powerless, as well as 
the more educated intellect : passions and propen- 
sities lose their usual supremacy — all is absorbed 
into harmony with the spiritual instinct. Goodness 
and truth are imaged in the intuition of beauty, 
while the lusts and appetites withdraw (from before 
the mirror.) 

In a word, common waking seems to consist in 
outward freedom and internal bondage ; magnetic 
waking, in external bondage but inward freedom. 

Let us now inspect the sun-sphere more closely. 

1. The outward ring signifies the beginning of the 
instinctive life — the withdrawing of the spirit from 
the exterior of life, and its involution towards the 
centre. 

2. The partial blue ring, between the two outer- 
most peripheral ones, signifies the magnetic aura, 
felt like a band, produced by the ordinary applica- 
tion of magnetism. Mrs. H called it a mag- 
netic wall, isolating her from the outer world. It 
does not go the whole way round. 

3. The second complete ring is divided into 365 
days and 1 2 months ; and from this issues the radi- 
ance towards the centre. From this, developed by 
the magnetic rapport^ proceeds somnambulism, and 
takes its aim against the interior of the life of 
spiritual instinct. In the different compartments 
into which the radii divide this ring, were stored 
all the occurrences and disturbances of the magnetic 



138 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

life, which befell her in the successive months of this 
magnetic year. At the end of each month a num- 
ber is elaborated, which represents the sum of these 
disturbances ; and from month to month it becomes 
larger, till it attain a maximum which has its root 
in the number native or peculiar to her as an indi- 
vidual. 

4. The spaces between these two and the next 

included rings Mrs. H delineates as her spirit- 

world. The spiritual appearances with which almost 
daily^ and certainly without being magnetized, she 
stands connected, form an episode in this magnetic 
history so peculiar, that no similar narrative is 
extant. Her daily intercourse with so many beings, 
invisible to us, thronging around her, and continu- 
ally ascending before her out of the mid-region, as 
she calls it, and all in order that, through prayer, 
they might regain their true relation to Christ and 
salvation through him, forms a singular chapter in 
this history, 

5. The next included ring — that is, the third 
one — is bordered by bright little spheres, which are 
carried into the compartments of the month, there 
being one for each. In the middle lies the number 
ten, with which every one reckons outwards, as well 
as the number seven — being that with which Mrs. 

H counts inwards, which is variable in each 

individual. 

It is here that the deeps of intuitive life are first 
opened up in magnetic rapport^ in clear-seeing, in 
sympathies and antipathies, in prescriptions for her- 



RELATION OF LIFE-SPHERE TO SUN-SPHERE. 139 

self and others^ in divination, in the transference of 
the senses to distant parts, and especially in all 
those revelations which are peculiar to the higher 
states of somnambulism. 

6. The three spheres lying immediately round the 
mid-point are set all round with little stars. When 
asked if this might not indicate the locality of the 
spiritual heaven, she replied — '^ These stars signify 
nothing but stars." 

7. Out of the mid-point of the sun-sphere, into 
which the spirit transfuses itself, it looks backwards 

to the centre of the life-sphere, where Mrs. H 

places the sun of grace. Behind that sun there 
basks, in ineffable beauty, the abode of the blessed, 
which Christ has assigned as his own domain ; but 
no mortal eye can gaze into it. We can know no 
more than is revealed by the glance which flashes 
for a moment in the spiritual eye — and even that 
must be instantly turned away, or be stricken blind. 



RELATION OF THE LIPE-SPHEEE TO THE SUN-SPHERE. 

Mrs. H said that the sun-circle, or sphere, is 

the world, and that every man carries the residue of 
it into the life-circle of his soul. As this world lies 
in the sun-sphere, so there lies a much higher in the 
life-sphere, whence every man has a presentiment 
of another world. The clear-seer steps out of the 
life-circle into the sun-circle, and beholds all that is 



140 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

within the comprehension of man. But this faculty 
has become more obscure since man has lost his in- 
tegrity. From the centre of the sun-sphere, the 
spirit beholds the world as it really exists — without 
veil or screen. If the spirit looks longer in this 
centre, it glances momentarily back to the centre of 
the life-sphere — which is a much deeper seeing; 
and what he has here seen only remains with him 
as a presentiment. The centre of the sun-sphere 
must be sometliing different from the spirit, because 
the spirit looks into it when it goes forth. 

The beholding of the mid-region is different, for 
this lies wholly in the sun-sphere, which is alike in 
all men. The reason that so few men perceive this 
(objective) spiritual kingdom is, that their spirits are 
not able to place themselves in the centre of the 
sphere. It is mostly magnetic persons that can do 
this ; and, therefore^ it is they who see spirits. 

By the fall, the spirit has lost its integrity, and is 
prismatically broken ; it is coloured and troubled 
like a ray of light that has passed through a prism. 
The cloud of the life of appearance intercepts its 
view — the ideas of the true, and the beautiful, and 
the good, no longer exhibit themselves to it ob- 
jectively, as they exist in the universal scheme. As 
Plato says, it has lost its wings, and, with the 
soul, is absorbed in the body and the world ; and 
all that remains to it is a striving to regain those 
wings. 

When the spirit is drawn from its sphere, ac- 
quired knowledge takes the place of the intuitive ; 



RELATION OF LIFE-SPHERE TO SUN-SPHERE. 141 

but the former is imperfect, and cannot supply the 
deficiency of the latter ; but the spirit still strives 
after what it has lost. The expression of this 
striving is the true philosophy ; and it remains true 
so long as it does not seek to identify itself with 
the fulness of revelation. The Scriptures say that 
man came pure from the hands of God, though he 
has since fallen from his purity; but that he may 
recover it through mediation and redemption. The 
cause of the fall was sin, which has not only drawn 
the spirit from its centre, but out of its sphere ; so 
that the worship of the one true God is split into a 
thousand fragments of the physical word, and a 
thousand idols of the human world. Truth and sin 
are two ever-receding poles ; and we can only ap- 
proach the one as we retreat from the other. There 
are many kinds of philosophy, but there is only one 
that is true ; and therefore, for two thousand years 
the fate of all its systems have been an invariable 
cycle — a mere labour of Sisyphus ; for no sooner 
have they reached their culminating points, then 
down they fall again. 

The functions of the soul are — thinking, feeling, 
and willing — but the lowest of these is thinking ; 
and those systems of philosophy which exalt it above 
the others are of the lowest grade. Enlightenment, 
enjoyment, light and love, are not the ojffsprings of 
thought ; they have a higher source. The functions 
of thinking, feeling3 and willing, originally belonged 
to the spirit ; but, since the fall, they have detached 
themselves, and each seeks its own independence— 



142 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

the result of which is, that the understanding is no 
longer in union with the other two. 

If the philosophy of religion were founded on a 
real basis — such as is here intimated — and were 
further deyeloped, the conviction would soon follow, 
that truth can only be elicited by exchanging the 
false centre of the absolute for the sun of grace, and 
worldly wisdom for the gospel. 



THE SEVENTH SUN-SPHERE. 

On the 1st of May 1828, Mrs. H said that she 

felt something remarkable would occur to her ; she 
knew not what it was, but hoped it would be for the 
best. After the news of her father s death — which 
she received on the 2d May, and which, as we have 
mentioned, she foresaw — her convulsions ceased ; 
but, in spite of this, her magnetic condition aug- 
mented, and she was in the sleep-waking state 
several times every day. She told us that she could 
no longer move backwards and forwards in her sun- 
sphere as before ; and that the stroke, or line, in her 
life-ring, which should not have reached the centre 
till December, had suddenly sprung forward ; and 
that, as she had not strength to push or shove it back 
again, so much time was lost to her, and she feared 
it would occasion her death. The whole of the 7th 
was passed in a state alternating between dreaming 
and catalepsy. At one time her protecting spirit 



THE SEVENTH SUN-SPHERE. 143 

appeared to her, pointing to a half-open coffin, which 
she interpreted as signifying that some peril impend- 
ed over her life. On the 8th, at seven in the even- 
ing, according to her own sleep-waking instructions 
— she being at the time in a state of catalepsy re- 
sembling death — I called to her, addressing my 
words to the pit of her stomach — '^ Do not forget 
this last year up to the present evening." Without 
this she told me that she should lose all recollection 
of the years that had elapsed since the commence- 
ment of her illness — a thing she could not endure 
the thought of. At my voice she started from her 
death-like state with a cry of terror, and an aspect 
of despair, but fell back immediately into her pre- 
vious insensibility. Presently she awoke, seeming 
unable to comprehend her situation, or recognize the 
circumstances that surrounded her. She said that 
the whole of her seventh sun-sphere had fallen off; 
but whether she should enter on a new one, she could 
not tell — she could see nothing beyond the present 
day, and must keep herself as composed as she could, 
in order to preserve her recollection. Her speedy 
closing in or environment (Eingesperrtseyns) seemed 
to be the next thing she foresaw. 

On the 15th, she somewhat recovered her recol- 
lection of that period which had become obscured to 
her ; and she lost the feeling of her spheres alto- 
gether — even the time at which she had made them 
appearing already dark and distant, whilst that 
which had preceded it now seemed the latest. The 
recollection of this last was at first dim, but gradually 



] 44 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

brightened, until she recalled every circumstance 
that had occurred with the greatest vividness. This 
kind of phenomenon is often observed in old people. 

On the 27th of January 1829, Mrs. H being 

in her sleep-waking state, said that she felt her 
seven sun-spheres had fallen off ; and that had not 
the last been cut through, as it had been, that with 
this crisis she should have recovered her health. 
The months of the sun-sphere, in which she then 
was, would last only to the 2d of May, instead of 
till the 27th December^ as they should have done. 
By this loss she was thrust out of these months ; 
and she believed that she was about to die, since these 
four months were all that were yet pending. 

On the 2d of May she fell into a magnetic dream, 
in which she as usual spoke aloud, somewhat to the 
following effect : — " I am on a mountain — Oh ! might 
I go down to the right, over those golden clouds, 
where I see that flowery vale ! To the left I see 
nothing but graves and corruption — behind me I see 
mankind struggling and fighting, like lions and tigers 
— to the right the flowers are smiling on me, but I 
will to death and the grave. Must I fall under this 
stroke ? Lead me where thou wilt — Oh ! fearful 
dream ! — Oh ! guide me ! Must I sink into the 
abyss ? Thou art powerful and strong — Do I under- 
stand thee aright ? — Must I remain on this moun- 
tain ? Yes, I must stay till the hour is come ; but 
thou art with me by day and night — if thou forsakest 
me, I fall. Oh ! let me awake from this fearful 
dream!" &c. &c. 



THE SEVENTH SUN-SPHERE. 145 

She was now in a new sphere^ and a new magnetic 
life, in which she described her inner faculty of see- 
ing as deeper than ever, although she should not 
speak out what she saw^ as before. She said, her 
body was dead whilst yet alive, but that her soul 
was more free and calm than ever. ^^ Let my body 
be no more regarded — be no care taken of it ; 'tis 
a torn garment, that I no longer value — into thy 
hand, Lord ! I commit my spirit." This was the 
presentiment of her approaching death ; and, from 
this time, she herself maintained the indifference she 
recommended. 

Although highly magnetic, and in a state of ex- 
treme debility, her sufferings had certainly been much 
alleviated during her residence at Weinsberg. She 
had more internal lucidity and calmness, and she had 
been cheered and consoled by intercourse and com- 
munion with many worthy men ; but it was not in 
the power of her friends to defend her from the un- 
favourable circumstances that, just at this period, 
acted so prejudicially on her health — we allude more 
particularly to the death of her father, and the sick- 
ness of her child. 

On the 5th May 1829, she returned to Lowen- 
stein, there to fulfil her destiny. 



And now, dear reader, was not the lot of this poor 
being a most pitiable one ? But all things that come 
from God are for the best, though we understand 
them not ; and the soul's health of this poor sufferer, 
and of those who take part in her pains, may per- 

K 



146 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

haps be the blessed fruits of her agony. Go ye into 
the world, my reader; and if the former part of 
this book be not to your mind^ trouble yourself with 
it no more — go ye into the world, which will tell you 
that all this is deception^ or the effects of a diseased 
imagination ; but wait till the still, midnight hour 
finds you at the bed-side of the dying, or till the 
parting hymn is sung by the grave of your well- 
beloved. The tumult of the world drowns the voice 
of our sweet mother, nature ; but the time comes at 
last, when the wheels stop — the clamour ceases — and 
that loving voice strikes in full accord upon our 
hearts ; and then we stand amazed, that all our life 
long such a chorus of heavenly harmonies had been 
calling to us, and we heard them not. 



PART SECOND. 



REVELATIONS CONCERNING THE 

INTER-DIFFUSION OF A WORLD OF SPIRITS 

IN THE ONE WE INHABIT. 



THE SEERESS OF PREVOKST. 



INTRODUOTIOK 

Beloved^ when you read these pages, although you 
be yet in the flower of youth, remember that life 
flies like a dream ; and when it is gone, what will 
avail all the knowledge you have acquired as a means 
to honour and fame ? You believe in a future state, 
but think little of the way that leads to it. You 
turn away your eyes from the picture of old age 
that awaits you,, and seek to drown the warning 
voice within, by the distractions of the world with- 
out. But you cannot silence it, for it is the voice 
of God ; and do what you will, it will yet cry to 
you, in the midst of pleasures, " Thou must die!" 
And when death threatens, you cling to the weak 
science of man, and rest dearer hopes on an apothe- 
cary's draught, than on all the treasures of the world. 
And how little even do those who, by satiety of 
life are led to desire death, think of what awaits 
them ! They hope they are not wicked enough for 
eternal punishment, and trust that God is too merci- 
ful to condemn them to it ; and they believe that, in 
quitting this world of care, they are going to an in- 



150 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

heritance of heavenly bliss. May these pages, which 
will not please the multitude — for the truths they 
disclose are too contrary to their hopes and wishes — 
may they, oh, beloved reader ! in spite of the ridi- 
cule and incredulity of the world, awaken thee to 
serious consideration. Well I know, that all the 
ordinary views of this life — of soul and spirit — and 
of the present world and the next, must be altered, 
before mankind can bring themselves to believe what 
is here written ; and that, rather than make this 
sacrifice, he will reject the whole, though the ex- 
change had been a happy one. Under these circum- 
stances, nothing remains for the investigator but his 
good intentions, and the beneficial purpose to which 
he has endeavoured to direct these events ; — for the 
rest, he must wrap himself in his mantle, and defy 
the storm. 



THE SEEEESS OF PREVORST. 



OF THE MAGNETIC MAN, IN HIS APPROXIMATION TO THE 
WORLD OF SPIRITS. 

However superficially we observe the course of na- 
ture, we cannot help remarking that she always 
advances by minute steps — that her progress is a 
chain, of which no link is wanting — and that she 
makes no abrupt transitions. Thus, in the stone we 
see the plant — in the plant, the animal — in the ani- 
mal, man — and in man, the immortal spirit. And 
as the wings of the butterfly are folded in the cater- 
pillar, so in man — especially in certain conditions — 
the wings of a higher Psyche are revealed, ready, 
after his short earthly life, to be unfolded ; and, by 
the magnetic man, before whom time and space are 
unveiled, we learn that there is a super-terrestrial 
world. The magnetic man is an imperfect spirit. 
In the polypus, which is the link between plants and 
the brute creation, we see both an imperfect animal 
and an imperfect plant ; whilst fixed to the earth 
like a plant, it stretches its arms into the animal 
world, and thus bears witness to it. And, in like 



152 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

manner, we see the magnetic man, whilst yet in the 
body, and enchained to the earth, putting forth feelers 
into the world of spirits, and bearing witness to that 
also. Such a striving after, and upward flight into, 
the world of spirits, we observe in all magnetic sub- 
jects ; but never yet in so great a degree as in the 
case now before us. We have seen, in the former 
part of this volume, how this nerve-spirit — arrested, 
as it were, in the act of dying — became sensible of 
the spiritual properties of all things — properties, to 
our more closely imprisoned nerve-spirits, altogether 
imperceptible. 

We have seen how this being — almost a spirit 
— releasing itself from its earthly husk, ranged 
through time and space ; and is it much more 
strange, that through the same faculties which en- 
abled it to perceive properties in earthly things, of 
which we are altogether unconscious, it should also 
be sensible of supernatural appearances, which are 
to us imperceptible ? Man is apparently a link 
between blest and unblest spirits — or, in other words, 
between angels and demons — and, though an inde- 
pendent and self-existing being, is yet subject to the 
influences of both. Doubtless, the laws of nature, 
as far as we yet know them, are more especially 
fitted to this middle-sphere, in which we think, feel, 
and will ; and are in less relation with those higher 
and lower powers, whose existence is denied by those 
independent spirits, who feel no innate presentiment 
of it. 

We are not here going to ofl'er a theory of appa- 



THE MAGNETIC MAN. 153 

ritions — whether our readers may look upon them 
as mere illusions of the brain^ or be willing to accept 
the facts we shall offer as competent proof — but only 
to examine whether, in the disclosures of the Seeress, 
any reasonable foundation for belief can be found. 

According to her, the nerve-spirit is the remnant 
of the body, and, after death, surrounds the soul 
with an aerial form. Being the highest organic 
power, it cannot by any other, physical or chemical, 
be destroyed; and, when the body is cast off, it 
follows the soul ; and as, during life, it forms the 
only bond that unites the soul with the body and 
the world, so is it also the means whereby the soul, 
whilst in the mid -region, can make itself manifest 
to man — of which power the atmosphere is the in- 
strument. In our ordinary condition, our senses are 
incapable of discerning these phenomena, just as we 
are incapable of perceiving the principle which pro- 
duces seeing and hearing ; because the subject can- 
not, at the same time, be the object. 

But in the abnormal magnetic state, such condi- 
tions are possible. The nerve-spirit — which, in our 
waking life, acts through the senses on the objective 
world — in the magnetic life is more concentrated 
and self-reflecting, whereby the sensorium attains 
an unwonted energy. It creates internal senses for 
itself out of the nervous plexuses, whilst the exter- 
nal senses are more and more shut up. And thus, 
the sensitive life of the soul is augmented and 
strengthened, by the reinforcement of the knowing 
and willing powers, which unite with it. 



154 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

In the same manner, the soul takes its direction 
towards its original centre, and knowledge is ele- 
vated into clear-seeing; and, under these circum- 
stances, not only may the spirit be able to place 
itself in the centre of its orbit, but also those things 
which are hidden to ordinary eyes — as the inhabit- 
ants of the mid-region — may be visible to the excited 
senses of a magnetic subject. 

Unless we look upon these supernatural appear- 
ances as mere chimeras, we must grant, that the 
preternatural lustre that shone from the eyes of the 
Seeress, when she beheld them, affords at least some 
confirmation of what she related to us regarding 
their frequent visits, and of how the dark forms 
gradually became brighter whilst she prayed. Her 
eyes shone like a flame, in which the dark spirits 
sought to sun themselves ; and where, it is probable, 
they found a gleam of that sun of grace, from them 
wholly hidden. It is remarkable, that the Seeress 
placed the dwelling of the blest, and the sun of 
grace, in the centre of the sun's orbit, and the ap- 
pearance of the unhappy spirits in its middle-region. 
The first belongs to the supernatural — the last, to 
the sub tern atural. Betwixt these lies the nature of 
man, which, in the high magnetic state attained by 
our Seherin, is placed in contact with both. 



REMARKS ON GHOST-SEEING. 155 



SOME REMARKS OF THE SEHERIN ON THE SUBJECT OF 

GHOST-SEEING. 

Persons whose life is in the brain — but especially 
those in whom it is more in the epigastric region — 
are occasionally capable of ghost-seeing; but the 
apparition is always seen by the spiritual eye through 
the fleshly. Through the soul may come presenti- 
ments, and the sensibility to spiritual things ; but 
clear-seeing never. When, however, the spirit is 
excited by the soul, ^Jhl-/<inxhnoJiV iiiki ghost-o^eeiiig 
may occur ; but, with those whose life is chiefly in- 
tellectual, this can only be momentary. The brain 
can contend, and resist ; but it is only those whose 
life is in the epigastric region, who see them as I do ; 
and, in such cases, there is no power of resistance. 
Certainly, these forms are not the ofispring of my 
imagination, for I have no pleasure in them ; on the 
contrary, they give me pain, and I never think of 
them but when I see them, or am questioned about 
them. Unfortunately, my life is now so constituted, 
that my soul, as well as my spirit, sees into the spi- 
ritual worlS — which is, however, indeed, upon the 
earth — and I see them not only singly, but frequently 
in multitudes, and of difierent kinds ; and many de- 
parted souls. 

I see many with whom I come into no approxi- 
mation, and others who come to me, with whom I 



156 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

converse, and who remain near me for months; I 
see them at various times by day and night, 
whether I am alone or in company. I am perfectly 
awake at the time, and am not sensible of any cir- 
cumstance or sensation that calls them up. I see 
them alike whether I am strong or weak, plethoric or 
in a state of inanition, glad or sorrowful, amused, 
or otherwise ; and I cannot dismiss them. Not that 
they are always with me, but they come at their 
own pleasure, like mortal visiters, and equally 
whether I am in a spiritual or corporeal state at the 
time. When I am in my calmest and most healthy 
sleep, they awaken me — I know not how, but I feel 
that l%m awakened' by fllem — and that I should 
have slept on had they not come to my bedside. 
I observe frequently that, when a ghost visits me 
by night, those who sleep in the same room with 
me are, by their dreams, made aware of its presence ; 
they speak afterwards of the apparition they saw in 
their dream, although I have not breathed a syllable 
on the subject to them. Whilst the ghosts are with 
me, I see and hear every thing around me as usual, 
and can think of other subjects ; and though I can 
avert my eyes from them, it is difficult for me to do 
it — I feel in a sort of magnetic rapport with them. 
They appear to me like a thin cloud, that one could 
see through — which, however, I cannot do. I never 
observed that they threw any shadow. I see them 
more clearly by sun or moonlight than in the dark ; 
but whether I could see them in absolute darkness, 
I do not know. If any object comes between me 



REMARKS ON GHOST-SEEING. 157 

and them, they are hidden from me. I cannot see 
them with closed eyes, nor when I turn my face 
from them ; but I am so sensible of their presence^ 
that I could designate the exact spot they are stand- 
ing upon ; and I can hear them speak although I 
stop my ears. I cannot endure that they should 
approach me very near ; they give me a feeling of 
debility. Other persons who do not see them are 
frequently sensible of the effects of their proximity 
when they are with me ; they have a disposition to 
faintness^ and feel a constriction and oppression of 
the nerves ; even animals are not exempt from this 
effect. The appearance of the ghosts is the same 
as when they were alive, but colourless — rather 
greyish; so is their attire — like a cloud. The 
brighter and happier spirits are differently clothed ; 
they have a long loose shining robe, with a girdle 
round the waist. The features of spectres are as 
when alive^ but mostly sad and gloomy. Their 
eyes are bright — often like a flame. I have never 
seen any with hair. All the female ghosts have the 
same head-covering — even when over it, as is some- 
times the case, they have that they wore when alive. 
This consists in a sort of veil, which comes over the 
forehead and covers the hair. The forms of the 
good spirits appear bright — those of the evil dusky. 

Whether it is only under this form that my senses 
can perceive them, and whether, to a more spiritu- 
alized being, they would not appear as spirits, I 
cannot say; but I suspect it. Their gait is like the 
gait of the living, only that the better spirits seem 



158 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

to float, and the evil ones tread heavier ; so that 
their footsteps may sometimes be heard, not by me 
alone, but by those who are with me. They have 
various ways of attracting attention by other sounds 
besides speech ; and this faculty they exercise fre- 
quently on those who can neither see them nor hear 
their voices. These sounds consist in sighing, 
knocking, noises as of the throwing of sand or 
gravel, rustling of paper, rolling of a ball^ shuffling 
as in slippers, &c. &c. They are also able to move 
heavy articles, and to open and shut doors, although 
they can pass through them unopened, or through 
the walls. I observe that the darker a spectre is, 
the stronger is his voice, and the more ghostly 
powers of making noises, and so forth, he seems to 
have. The sounds they produce are by means of 
the air, and the nerve-spirit, which is still with 
them. I never saw a ghost when he was in the act 
of producing any sound except speech, so that I 
conclude they cannot do it visibly ; neither have I 
ever seen them in the act of opening or shutting a 
door, only directly afterwards. They move their 
mouths in speaking, and their voices are various, as 
those of the living. They cannot answer me all 
that I desire ; wicked spirits are more willing or able 
to do this, but I avoid conversing with them. These 
I can dismiss by a written word, used as an amulet, 
and free others from them as well as myself. 

When I talk to them piously, I have seen the 
spirits, especially the darker ones, draw in my 
words, as it were, whereby they become brighter ; 



REMARKS ON GHOST-SEEING. 159 

but I feel much weaker. The spirits of the happy 
invigorate me, and give me a very different feeling 
to the others. I observe that the happy spirits have 
the same difficulty in answering questions regarding 
earthly matters, as the evil ones have in doing it 
with respect to heavenly ones ; the first belong not 
to earth, nor the last to heaven. With the high and 
blessed spirits I am not in a condition to converse ; 
I can only venture on a short interrogation. I am 
told that, when asleep, T often spoke with my pro- 
tecting spirit^ who is amongst the blessed. I know 
not if this be so ; if it were, it must have been in 
moments when my spirit was disjoined from my soul. 
When soul and spirit are united, I cannot converse 
with the blessed. 

The spirits who come to me are mostly on the in- 
ferior steps of the mid-region, which is in our atmo- 
sphere; but mid-region is a misnomer, and I call it so 
unwillingly. They are chiefly spirits of those who, 
from the attraction of, and attachment to, the ex- 
ternal world, have remained below — or of those 
who have not believed in their redemption through 
Christ — or who, in the moment of dying, have been 
troubled with an earthly thought which has clung 
to them, and impeded their upward flight. Many, 
who are neither condemned nor placed amongst the 
blessed immediately after death, are on different 
stages of this mid-region; some, whose spirits have 
been purified, are very high. On the lowest degree, 
these spirits are still exposed to the temptations of 
the wicked ; but not in the higher, where they 



160 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

already enjoy heavenly happiness, and the purity of 
the blessed. 

But it must not be thought that improvement is 
easier there than here ; it must originate with them- 
selves ; there are no worldly distractions or dissipa- 
tions ; the whole sinful life lies comprised in a single 
sign, or character, before the spirit, and he has to 
choose betwixt heaven or hell. Those on the lower 
degrees, who are the heaviest, are in a continual 
twilight, with nothing to delight their eyes. This 
dimness does not belong to the place they are in, but 
proceeds from their own souls. The orbit of the sun 
is no longer visible to them ; and, although they are 
in our atmosphere, they have no eyes for earthly 
objects. It is only by their inward improvement 
that they obtain light and the power of seeing. As 
soon as they have light in their souls, they can quit 
our atmosphere, and they can see light again. These 
are they who mostly come to me ; whilst I am un- 
happily so constituted that I can see them, and they 
me. They come to me that I may aid them through 
prayer, and give them a word of consolation. Others 
come under the erroneous persuasion that the avowal 
of some crime, which weighs upon their spirit, will 
bring them rest. Under the influence of this error, 
they are often more anxious about some single mis- 
deed, than about all the rest of their ill-spent lives ; 
and others still come to me to whom some earthly 
feeling or thought has clung in death, which they 
cannot shake off. It were better they addressed 
themselves to the spirits of the blest; but their 



REMARKS ON GHOST-SEEING. 161 

weight draws them more to men than spirits. They 
come to me, and I see them independently of my 
own will. 

These revelations will appear to many incredible 
and absurd — especially to those who are of opinion 
that a spirit must know more than a human being ; 
but I answer that this is not the case with these 
spirits ; they are in a very inferior state, are mostly 
entangled in error, and can more easily approach 
man, with whom they are in a sort of nervous rela- 
tion, than heavenly spirits. A spirit that has lived 
in - darkness here on earth, remains dark after 
death. And thus a weak spirit becomes weaker 
after death, when it has no longer the support of the 
soul, which then only serves it for a shell ; or rather 
the amount of his weakness is exposed by his stand- 
ing alone and unsustained. A sinful and worldly- 
minded man may shine on earth by the strength of 
his intellect ; but his spirit is only the weaker and 
darker, and wholly lost to its inner -life. And thus 
also it arises that, in the kingdom of spirits, such a 
one is much lower than his arrogant and lying soul 
caused him to appear in the intellectual kingdom. 
If, however, a man ha^s highly cultivated his soul 
and spirit, he cannot, after death, fall into this 
heavy and impotent state ; but, by cultivation^ 
something is implied of a much more elevated nature 
then is commonly understood. But even in these 
powerless spirits, except when completely given over 
to evil, the heavenly spark is not wholly extinguish- 
ed ; these seek always to draw the soul to them, 

L 



162 THE SEEHESS OF PREVORST. 

till it is at length purified, then they become wholly 
spirits. Such spirits, when they are not entirely 
pure, enjoy a certain degree of happiness in the mid- 
region, in which they may rise higher, but can sink 
no more. The forms of these spirits appear to me 
brighter, as does also their attire ; — in short, they 
are spiritualized. 

We will here add a few particulars gathered from 
the Seherin in conversation, and from her letters to 
Eschenmayer on the same subject. 

He asked her — " Can all men see ghosts, or only 
those in whom a spiritual eye shines through the 
fleshly one V 

She answered — " The power of ghost-seeing re- 
sides in all men, but is seldom active, and only 
momentary, since it must be excited by something 
that calls forth the inner-man ; and this is generally 
dispersed and suppressed by reason." 

On the subject of the growth of children in the 

other world, Mrs. H said — " I once asked a 

spectre whether human beings grew after death, 
because I had seen some who had died in early 
youth that seemed to have become much larger? 
and he answered — ' Yes; when they are taken 
from earth before they are full grown. The soul 
constructs itself a larger shell till it is as large as 
required. With children this is as bright as with 
the blessed.' " 

On being asked whether the undeveloped faculties 
of children were developed after death? she answered, 
that they were developed through the nerve-spirit. 



REMARKS ON GHOST-SEEING. 163 

which remained with the soul ; but that we were 
unable to conceive the power and purity of children, 
who have all that their heavenly Father gave them, 
not having deteriorated their soul and nerve-spirit 
by words or works. But men must not, therefore, 
desire to die in their childhood, for a life spent after 
God's will ensures a still more blessed state. But 
what purity and elevation might we attain even on 
earth, if we did not so weaken the powers of our 
soul by our words, works, and thoughts. Our flesh 
would be purified, and all our faculties exalted. 

With respect to the condition of the heathen after 
death, the Seherin said — " Some days since I asked a 
ghost, who had some degree of brightness, where he 
was, and with what he, and the spirits that were 
with him, engaged themselves." He answered — " I 
am not in the mid-region ; I am in a certain de- 
gree of happiness — in that wherein are placed the 
heathens, and all those who, by no fault of their 
own, remained ignorant of their Lord and Saviour. 
We are there instructed by angels until we are ripe 
for greater bliss." 

On being asked whether mankind could release 
spirits, she answered — " No ; they must release 
themselves from the bonds that hold them. They 
seek help from living men ; and have the idea that 
we can help them, because they have no compre- 
hension of the great Redeemer. We can only be 
mediators, as I am. I always seek to persuade 
them from their error, that I or others can help them. 
I pray earnestly with them, and wean them more 



lb* THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

and more from the world ; but it costs much labour 
before such souls are turned to the Lord. When 
they have no good inclinations^ we can only com- 
prise them in the universal petition for our neigh- 
hours. There are many instances in which the half 
unblest — those in a middle stage — could raise them- 
selves higher, since it depends on themselves to 
frequent good spirits, and be instructed by them, 
when their progress would be much faster than by 
the assistance of mortals." 

We thus learn by these revelations of the Seherin, 
that virtuous heathens, and all upright men_, are 
destined to happiness hereafter ; but that a belief in 
the Christian religion being absolutely necessary to 
perfect salvation, they must be instructed in it by 
angels, even after death, before they can enter into 
the kingdom of God ; and when Christ says that he 
will draw all to him, and that there shall be but one 
flock and one shepherd, he includes the heathens, 
and alludes not only to the earth, but to the king- 
dom of heaven also ; and when he has sent the 
Gospel to the heathens, and has drawn them into his 
fold, we may be certain that a state of bliss will be 
prepared for them very different to that they aspire 
to. 



OBSERVATIONS BY ESCHENMAYER. 165 



OBSERVATIONS ON THE REVELATIONS OF MRS. H , BY 

ESCHENMAYER. 

According to Mrs. H , the life of the brain is 

the intellectual life, that in the epagastric region the 
sensitive life. This last is deeper and more internal 
than the first ; it lies in the centre of the organism 
of the soul, and is a central power, whilst the intel- 
lect is only a peripheral, or partial power. All 
those who place the true above the beautiful, under- 
standing above emotion, the inductive above the 
ideal, &c. &c., pervert the nature of the soul, and 
can never comprehend the distinction made by Mrs. 
H . 

" Spirits," says Mrs. H , " are seen by the 

spiritual eye through the fleshly one." 

The fleshly eye perceives such objects as have 
colour and form, and gives us intelligence of those 
that are in the light, or reflect it ; and this it does 
by means of the nerve-spirit, which resides in the 
nerves. But there is, besides this, a spiritual ray 
and a spiritual eye, to which the nerve-spirit itself 
becomes objective. Suppose, then, beings whose 
forms are identical with the plastic plan of the nerve- 
spirit itself, as Mrs. H describes the departed 

souls, the spiritual eye will perceive them through 
the bodily one. In ordinary waking persons, the 
cloud of our life of appearance interposes betwixt the 



166 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

fleshly and spiritual eye, and they then see nothing 
but material superficies. And when now and then 
a spiritual ray does pierce through the cloud of our 
intellectual life, it is only momentary ; and our 
reason rejects and disputes the airy form of a de- 
parted soul that has presented itself to the spiritual 

eye. But, in that emotional life which Mrs. H 

lived for several years, this may become a permanent 
condition. No person who had ever seen the pecu- 
liar piercing look (Stechblick) that Mrs. H 's 

eyes assumed, and which each time was accompanied 
by a sort of nervous shock, which pervaded the 
whole body, when she perceived the image of the 
inner-man in any one*s eye, could for a moment 
doubt that she had a faculty of seeing different to 
that of ordinary human beings. 

She distinguished the bright from the dark spirits 
— designating one as the good and the other the evil ; 
and such is the difference betwixt the kingdom of 
light and truth, and that of darkness and lies. The 
evil ones are, also, the apparitions, who make them- 
selves audible by means of the nerve-spirit and the 
air. But how is this possible ? Is it not the in- 
tensity of the nerve-spirit that, whilst we are alive, 
rules our corporeal mass, so that the muscles are 
only the medium by which the strength of the nerve- 
spirit accomplishes the motion required ? But this 
strength, so far from being proportioned to the mass, 
exceeds it immeasurably ; so that, by the force of 
the nerve-spirit, an insignificant muscle can move 
a great weight. Let us take away the corporeal 



OBSERVATIONS BY ESCHENMAYER. 167 

medium — which is what happens in death — the 
power still remains — namely, the nerve- spirit, which, 

according to Mrs. H , the soul after death usee 

as its instrument. 

And thus we are not far from the conclusion, that 
this power may imitate various sounds by means of 
the air, and, by its own pressure, remove weights. 
We are accustomed, indeed, to see forces exerted 
through material mediums ; and yet force is opposed 
to matter. Who shall weigh the lightning, which 
resists all weight ? The nerve-spirit, being an 
organic power, has yet more intensity than the 
lightning ; and, to exhibit itself, it needs no instru- 
ment but the air. 

How the soul is to exist after death, is assuredly 
a question worth asking. A soul given wholly to 
the world retains this direction after death; for it 
would be strange if such an one could be suddenly 
purified from his vices and sins. The existence of 
the soul after death is a universal belief ; but the 
conditions of this existence few trouble themselves 
to inquire. This indifference is painfully disturbed 
by the Seherin, who exhibits to the worldly-minded 
the picture of their own future state, and shows us, 
miserable God-forsaken souls, who once enjoyed all 
the pleasures of this life, bearing about the burthen 
of their sins upon them. In describing the states of 
the rich and the poor man, the Bible only exhibits 
the extremes, leaving the intermediate conditions 
to be understood. The Seherin justly says, that, in 
the higher grades, the soul feels too much happiness 



1^8 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

and purity to be exposed to the temptations of the 
wicked ; but^ in the lower compartments, on the 
contrary, the spirit is left to work out its own im- 
provement ; there are no distractions nor worldly 
occupations there ; the whole sinful life lies before 
the eyes of the spirit in one single character^ (or sign 
of the natural language,) and he has to choose be- 
tween heaven and hell. Those who have been 
baptized in Christ carry this seed above with them, 
although it may have struck no root on earth ; and 
there it may be cherished and tended till it becomes 
itself a flower of light, and overgrows the weeds 
that starve it. Prayers are the living waters that 
quench the tantalizing thirst of these unhappy spirits ; 
but why did they address themselves to the Seherin 
for aid ? Because, she answers, she was so consti- 
tuted that they could naturally see and hear each 
other. And thence may be conceived an equally 
mutual incapacity in the case of persons in a normal 
condition. The spirits came from their dark dwell- 
ings to sun themselves in the bright light that shone 
from her bodily eye. 

Mrs. H says that — ^' A sinful worldly-minded 

man may shine in this life by the force of his in- 
tellect ; but his spirit is but the weaker and darker, 
and incapable of looking within. When he dies, the 
soul that sustained him here becomes only the husk 
of his spirit — the weak dark spirit, which is now 
the ruler. Alas ! what then ? A profound truth 
this! The highest intellectual wealth may be the 
accompaniment of the most lamentable moral poverty. 



OBSERVATIONS BY ESCHENMAYER. ] 69 

But it is only our moral gains that will be carried 
to our account in the next world ; our knowledge 
will not be reckoned, for it has there no value unless 
it has been devoted to purposes of religion and 
virtue. The Scripture says — " I will bring to nought 
the wisdom of the wise, and the understanding of 
the prudent will I overthrow. The wisdom of this 
world is foolishness with God." 

The peculiar property of the pure spirit is seeing ^"^ 
not knowing. All human knowledge is defective ; 
and when the spirit is absorbed in the soul, and 
knowledge supersedes seeing^ it is overshadowed, 
and loses its integrity. A second property of the 
spirit is freedom ; but not that freedom which reason 
has set up for itself, but that which proceeds out of 
the worship of the heart, t And a third, is the con- 
ception of the harmony that exists between the true, 
the beautiful, and the good ; and not their severance 
— each for itself — as is the case in the organism of 
the soul. All those systems which establish their 
absolute in knowledge, radiate from a false centre ; 
they place freedom below the law, and know not love ; 
for where love begins, there the law ends. Christ 
has said, "I am the truth ; the "Word is the 
truth ; the Holy Ghost is the spirit of truth." In 
the Word dwells the spirit of truth, and there alone 
can our spirits find their purification. All philosophy 
is true and complete which aspires to holiness, and 

* Das Schauen — intuitive knowledge or feeling ; inspiration. — 
Translator. 
t The obedience that makes free. — Translator. 



170 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

homologates itself with the Word ; and all philo- 
sophy is false and partial, which fixes its centre in 
either the understanding of the true, or in the idea- 
lizing of the beautiful, or in striving after good alone. 
But falsest of all is the scholastic, which represents 
nothing but an intellectual game of chance, which 
reason plays with itself ; glorifying itself upon the 
lucky combinations of the dice, however short the 
duration of its triumph ; for soon another arises to 
confound the lucky cast, and establish a new system. 

Mrs. H remarks, that her description of the 

apparitions will appear, especially to worldly minds, 
incredible and absurd. I do not doubt it ; for who 
will believe in so distasteful a region of unsubstantial 
shadows ? But what if one arose from the dead to 
tell us it is so ? Still it would not be believed. Now, 
/ believe, that when we cast off our body, the laws 
of nature cease, and the wisdom built upon them be- 
comes vain ; whilst a moral law of a very different 
kind will supersede them. With those whose wis- 
dom is of this world, we will not dispute ; we will 
only urge them in their ideal conception of another, 
to give precedence to moral merit or demerit. 



I support this history upon two grounds ; 1^^, The 
evidence which I received from the lips of persons 
worthy of the highest credit, and testimonies such as 
no similar history can adduce ; and, ^dly. On the 
problem which each person may propose for himself — 
namely, to find as appropriate a condition for the re- 
probate, after death, as that described by the Seherin. 



EXPLANATIONS RESPECTING GHOST-SEEING. 171 



FURTHER EXPLANATIONS WITH RESPECT TO THE SEHERIN S 
FACULTY OF GHOST-SEEING. 

This faculty of ghost-seeing, which was found in 

SO high a degree in the case of Mrs. H , resided, 

more or less, in several other members of her family, 
especially her brother. He had seen apparitions at 
an early period, when he was absent from his sister ; 
and later, when with her, he often saw those that 
were standing near her, or passing through the room. 
He once said to me, softly, " There is a spirit passing 
through the room into my sister's chamber ;" and he 
had hardly spoken, when we heard Mrs. H con- 
versing with a spirit, which stood visibly before her. 
But he had not this faculty at all times, though she 
had ; for, one evening, when she called to me and 
him to come and see this same spirit, which was then 
in her chamber, he could not see it, although she 
could, except when I unconsciously placed myself in 
a position to intercept her view of it. 

Her child also, only three years of age, gave many 
decisive proofs of possessing this faculty. 

A sister of Mrs. H 's, a very simple, unso- 
phisticated girl, had so acute a sensibility to the 
proximity of these immaterial beings, that, without 
actually seeing them with her eyes, she could give a 
description of their appearance, according with the 
reality described by Mrs. H . She said, *^ I do 



172 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

not see them with my ordinary eyes — I see them 
from within ;" yet this girl was never somnambulic, 
and was in perfect health. 

Novalis is of opinion, that when we see a ghost, 
we become momentarily magnetic. This was cer- 
tainly the case with Mrs. H . A glass laid on 

the pit of her stomach made her more awake ; and, 
remarking this, 1 told her sister, when next she ob- 
served that a spirit was present, to apply a glass in 
this manner. She did so ; and the effect was, that 
the spirit appeared to grow darker and larger, and 

Mrs. H became very much terrified — a thing 

that was quite unusual with her. It would thus ap- 
pear that, to the spiritual inner-eye, a ghost seems 
brighter than it would do to the fleshly eye ; and it 

was the opinion of Mrs. H , that she probably 

did not see the spirits as they really were. 

A very honest and truthful young girl of Lowen- 

stein, who for some time waited on Mrs. H , 

was obliged to resign her situation, because she saw 

all the spectres that entered Mrs. H 's chamber, 

even whilst they passed through the anti-chamber ; 
and could describe them exactly, in conformity with 

Mrs. H 's description, only that they appeared 

to her darker, and more grim. She is the only per- 
son I know of who heard the spirits speak as well 

as Mrs. H . Many other persons were made 

conscious of their proximity, by a sensation of faint- 
ness and anxiety ; and those who slept in Mrs. 

H 's room were frequently afiected in their sleep 

by these spiritual visiters, and related their dream on 



EXPLANATIONS RESPECTING GHOST-SEEING. ITS 

wakening. Thus, spiritual life^ dreaming^ sleeping, 
and deaths seemed all commingled. 

Mrs. H was of opinion^ that a person not 

ordinarily gifted with the faculty of ghost-seeing, 
was more likely to have this perception in winter 
than in summer. Doubtless, at this season, telluric 
life preponderates ; and hence the significance of the 
holy period of Advent, and that from Christmas eve 
to Twelfth Night, which is supposed to be particu- 
larly appropriated to the appearance of spectres. 

These spirits were audible to many and various 
people, but only accidentally ; never when they were 
watched for. The sounds they made chiefly resem- 
bled slight knockings, as on the wall, table, bed- 
stead, and sometimes in the air ; rustling as of paper, 
rolling of balls, and pattering of feet. Frequently, 
especially when a certain dark spirit was about to 
appear, (whose history will presently be given,) 
there were sounds as of the throwing of gravel or 
sand, combined with actual throwing of substances 
— on one occasion, pieces of lime. These sounds 

were not only heard in Mrs. H 's apartment, but 

in other parts of the house — even our own bed- 
chamber — as long as she inhabited the lower room. 
This was also the case in the other two houses she 
resided in ; and these noises were also heard in the 
chambers of other people, sleeping under the same 
roof with her ; as also strange sensations, as of pres- 
sure, &c. &c. Nay, not only so, but these sounds 
would be heard in the houses of persons into whose 
door she never entered — having been, indeed, for 



174 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

some months confined chiefly to her bed ; they were, 
however, those who visited her, and whom the dark 
spirit, therefore, molested. 

Thus, Mr. Zenneck, a merchant of Stuttgart, re- 
lated to me, that after spending the evening with 

Mrs. H , there had been a singular opening and 

shutting of doors in his house in the night, and 
sounds like throwing of sand and gravel in his bed- 
chamber. He resided not far from Mrs. H , 

but had never heard a syllable on the subject of the 
dark spectre. The same circumstance occurred to 
Mr. Wagner, an artist at Heilbronn. I conjectured 
the cause of these sounds^ but did not communicate 
my suspicions. 

I myself once saw a spectre, at the moment that 

Mrs. H 's eyes were fixed on it. To me the 

outlines were not distinct ; it looked like a pillar of 
vapour, or cloud, of the size of a man ; it stood by 
her bed-side, and she was speaking to it in a low 
voice. She told me afterwards, that it was the 
spectre of a tall, old man, who had visited her twice 
before. It is remarkable, that on his first appear- 
ance, her sister had seen it ; and also another per- 
son, who discerned it as distinctly as Mrs. H 

herself. 

To the above-mentioned servant girl, the spirits 
appeared in darker hues than to Mrs. H . An- 
other person once saw one, like a grey cloud, but 
with more defined outlines than I had done. 

In many accounts of spectres, the sounds we have 
described are alluded to ; these being, possibly, the 



EXPLANATIONS RESPECTING GHOST-SEEING. 175 

only means these beings have of making their pre- 
sence known to mortals. The darker the spirit was, 
the more these sounds seemed to be in their power ; 

which Mrs. H explained, by saying, that to 

them the nerve-spirit, by whose means the noises 
were made, was more closely appended — less dis- 
joined. 

This nerve-spirit, invisible to us, belongs to the 
potencies of nature — if not physical, at least organic. 
Our muscles were dead flesh without it — from it we 
derive all our energy ; for the simple contraction of 
the muscles is not power. It is the will of the nerve- 
spirit, flowing through our fibres, that causes con- 
traction. As long as we are in objective relation 
through our bodies, the nerve-spirit can only exhibit 
itself by the body ; but, when freed from this, it can 
produce sensible eff'ects on the world of mind and 
matter, by means of a substance it extracts from the 
atmosphere. Thus is the question of unbelievers 
answered, ^^ How can a spirit produce sounds ? " 

But they still cry Mrs. H is a deceiver — all is 

imposition ! 

I visited Mrs. H at least 3000 times — passed 

hours and hours with her — was better acquainted 
with her associates and circumstances than she was 
herself; and I gave myself inexpressible pains to 
investigate all reports, but I never could discover 
deception ; whilst others, who never heard nor saw 
her, and who spoke of her as the blind do of colours, 
detected the imposition without difficulty. 

Mrs. H — — never spoke voluntarily of these ap- 



176 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST* 

paritions, for the subject gave her pain ; and when 
she did so at my request, or that of others, it was 
with a simplicity and conviction that often affected 
even unbelievers. She considered this gift of ghost- 
seeing so great a misfortune, especially from the 
gossip it occasioned, that she often earnestly prayed 
to God to take it from her ; and she once wrote to a 
friend on the subject, in the following terms : — " If 
I could prevent these spectres knowing of, or visiting 
me — could I entirely dismiss them, or cause other 
people to see them, (which last, however, I cannot 
desire,) my situation would be much amended ; for 
I frequently feel myself alone — deserted and mis- 
understood by a great part of the world. But it is 
the will of God, and I am silent." 

'' When the advantages and disadvantages of those 
who are so organized, as to have eyes for the invisible 
world as well as the visible, are balanced," says 
Kant, " this gift appears to resemble that of Juno 
to Tiresias, who gave him the gift of prophecy, but 
made him blind." 

All who took the trouble to observe and prove 
Mrs. H , became convinced of her truth, single- 
ness of mind, and piety. She did not expect other 
people to believe in the reality of these apparitions ; 
neither, she said, did God require it of them. " Un- 
fortunately for me," she would say, " my life is so 
constituted, that these spiritual beings see me, and I 
them ; but others have no part in these preternatu- 
ral phenomena, and they are welcome to believe 
them visions or optical illusions if they please. None 



EXPLANATIONS RESPECTING GHOST-SEEING. 177 

need desire to see them ; I know too well, from my 
own experience, the injurious effects of this faculty 
upon the brain." 

I long entreated Mrs. H to procure that I 

should hear a spectre ; and as, at a later period, this 
often happened, I next begged her to obtain that I 
should see one ; but she said that did not depend on 
her will. Some persons looked upon this desire as a 
sin ; but Eschenmayer says, in his " Mysteries," 
that as these facts did not simply regard magnetic 
phenomena, but involved subjects of the deepest in- 
terest to mankind, as communications from the dead^ 
&c. &c., he looked upon it as part of the duty of a 
physician. He made the same request, but she gave 
him the same answer ; adding, that it could only 
happen under certain circumstances. Doubtless, 
those who, in ordinary life, do see them, are momen- 
tarily in a magnetic state ; but the brain quickly 
resuming the ascendent, they think they have been 
deceived. 

Many persons thought, that this ghost-seeing, on 

the part of Mrs. H , originated with me, and 

those about her ; but Mrs. H was not like some 

dependent somnambules I have seen ; she stood alone. 
8he appeared, to those who knew and understood 
her, as a very sensible woman, in a very abnormal 
state. 

The first time she mentioned having seen an ap- 
parition, I reproved and contradicted her, conceiving 
it to have been only a vision ; and although time 

M 



178 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

and circumstances changed my opinion, I never 
ceased trying to persuade her, that the spectres she 
saw were merely occular illusions, like those of Nicolai 
and others. But, in spite of this, they still fre- 
quented her — were often heard and felt by others — 
and one extraordinary fact followed hard upon an- 
other. 

With respect to the ghost-seeing originating with 

me, Mrs. H^ saw them before she came to me, 

and when she was under a magnetizer who did not 
believe in them. Her belief was in no degree shaken 
by my doubts, nor by my declarations, that there 
could be no perfect convictions unless others saw 
them too. 

In my own house, I can bear witness, not only to 
the sounds of throwing, knocking, &c., but a small 
table was flung into a room without any visible 
means ; the pewter plates in the kitchen were hurled 
about, in the hearing of the whole house — circum- 
stances laughable to others, and which would be so 
to me, had I not witnessed them in my sound mind ; 
but which become doubly significant, when I com- 
pare them to many accounts I have heard of the 
like nature, where there was no somnambule in 
question. 

At my request, the Prelate von Marklin spoke to 

Mrs. H , and endeavoured to argue her out of 

her belief in the reality of these apparitions, he being 
himself an entire disbeliever in such appearances. 
She listened to him with satisfaction, but the spectres 



EXPLANATIONS RESPECTING GHOST-SEEING. 179 

came no less ; nor were their visits less frequent 
when she was surrounded by friends who not only 
did not believe, but laughed at the whole story. 

An acquaintance of Mrs. H 's, who sometimes 

visited her, one day informed us that a friend of hers 
was dead. This person had promised her that he 
would appear to her after death, and we conse- 
quently hourly expected to learn that she had seen 
his ghost ; but days, weeks, and months passed, with- 
out any such event happening. Then the acquaint- 
ance owned, that not believing in the reality of these 
apparitions, he had said it for an experiment; the 
person was not dead. 

Another experiment was made as follows : Mrs. 

H was frequently visited by the spectre of a 

deceased person, of whom she had never seen or 
heard anything whatever. A friend bade her learn 
of this ghost the period of his birth, which neither 
she nor I knew. This was done ; but when our 
friend made inquiry of his relations whether the 
time mentioned was correct, they said, " No." This 
our friend wrote to us ; and I read the letter to Mrs. 

H , advancing it as a strong argument against 

the reality of the apparitions. She answered, un- 
moved, that she would inquire again. She did so, 
and the answer was the same. I wrote again to my 
friend, saying so, and begging him to ascertain more 
particularly the period of the birth in question ; and, 
on doing this, he found that the relations had been 
in error ; the time had been correctly named. 

I could relate many other equally remarkable facts 



180 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

but that I should be encroachiug too much on the 
privacy of the parties concerned. I am aware that 
many persons will remain utterly incredulous ; and 
we desire to force our belief on no one, though our 

own conviction remains unshaken. Mrs. H had 

this gift from her childhood, and continued to have 
it, in spite of all our efforts ; so have many other 
persons of robust health, without being in a magnetic 
state at all. But these phenomena are always attri- 
buted to insanity, and, therefore, never investigated. 
This faculty was natural to Mrs. H , but, doubt- 
less, was heightened by her magnetic condition. 

Although healthy persons seldom possess this fa- 
culty in the same degree that Mrs. H did, yet 

many persons have it more or less. A remark- 
able example occurred to Councillor S 1 at 

Neustadt. Though, from his 20th to his 65th year, 
he had excellent health, and led an active life ; yet 
he was endowed with a faculty of clear-seeing almost 
amounting to sleep-waking. He could, like our 
Seherin, discern the inner-man through the outward 
husk, and had the gift of presentiment. 

" Once," said he, " as I was lying in bed, plan- 
ning the marriage of a certain young person with a 
relation of my own^ the curtains of my bed were 
drawn aside, and an arm was thrust in. In the hand 
was a tablet, on which was inscribed, in strange cha- 
racters, altogether unknown to me, ' Frederika will 
be married in three years, four months, and two days.' 
Amazed that I should understand it, I nevertheless 
took a note of the words, and the date. The young 



EXPLANATIONS RESPECTING GHOST-SEEING. 181 

lady did not marry my relation ; but I afterwards 
heard that she married another person exactly at 
the time named/' The inner-language, frequently 
alluded to, will here be recalled to mind. 

This gentleman was wont to say, that the spectres 
he saw appeared of a bluish-grey, and attired as 
when alive. In places frequented by spirits, a strange 
feeling warned him of their proximity — not fear ; for 
that they never inspired. ^^ I often observed," said 
he, " that animals were sensible of their presence, 
when persons about me were not. For the rest — 
although I could speak, and enter into closer com- 
munion with them, I never do, but seek to avoid 
their proximity." The robust health, and active 
life of this gentleman, renders his case the more 
remarkable. 

The gift of Swedenborg is well known. Claudius 
says, '^ Whether Swedenborg was a fool, or really 
saw spectres, remains a question ; but we can scarcely 
doubt that there are spectres ; and Swedenborg so- 
lemnly declared, both in the course of his life, and 
on his death-bed in London, in 1771, that he had 
seen them." Our Seherin bore the same testimony 
in her last moments. 

" People seek to account for the apparitions seen 
by the Seherin von Prevorst," says Friedrich von 
Meyer, " by adducing those seen by Nicolai ; Blake, 
the English painter, who could call them up at will ; 
and many other melancholy, nervous, and hysterical 
persons — and we are far from supposing that all 
ghost-seeing is objective ; it is often subjective — but. 



182 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

in these cases, all appertainiDg circumstances must 
be taken into consideration ; and we cannot be as- 
sured that the forms seen by Nicolai and Blake were 
purely the offspring of imagination — they may have 
been a mixture of reality and delusion/' 

" In fine, people may explain these phenomena as 
they please/' says Eschenmayer ; '' we will refer to 
the words of the prophet — ' And it shall happen 
in the latter days that I will pour out my spirit 
upon all flesh ; and your sons and daughters shall 
prophecy ; and your young men shall see visions, 
and your old men shall dream dreams. And in 
those days I will pour out my spirit upon my men- 
servants and my maid-servants, and they also shall 
prophecy/ " 

^' Ever and anon," says Kerner, " a ray bursts 
through the mysteries of creation, and penetrates 
the cloud of our factitious life. He who looks up 
to heaven, sees this ray, like a flash in the night, 
which, for a moment, illuminates a region unknown ; 
but he whose eyes are fixed on the earth, cannot see 
this ray, and for him all is night. But the recol- 
lection of this unknown region, dwells for ever in 
the mind of him who has once perceived it, and thi- 
ther all his energies are directed ; but he who sees it 
not, seeks it not — he lies wrapt in the cold arms of 
the earth, of which he is born — the caterpillar, hid 
in the ground, can only, through a long, long, pro- 
cess of metamorphosis, become a butterfly/' 



BELIEF IN SPIRITS. 183 



THE BELIEF IN SPIRITS IS GROUNDED IN NATURE. 

A belief in the proximity of spirits, and of the 
souls of the departed, is common to all people ; it is 
innate in the human broast, and only suppressed by 
education and culture. The sages of old speak con- 
fidently of a spiritual region, of the middle-state 
after death, and of a moral weight or heaviness 
which, after death, drags the impure soul back to 
the earth. Plato tells us, that when a pure soul 
l.eaves the body, it goes at once to God and immor- 
tality ; but that the impure, who loved only their 
body, and studied only to satisfy its desires, and in- 
dulge its passions — who loved not wisdom, and whose 
eyes were blinded — cannot shake off the flesh. It 
accompanies them, and drags them down to the earth ; 
and the spectres that hover round their own graves, 
and appear to mortals, are of those who could not 
separate themselves from their bodies, and who have 
preserved some means of rendering themselves visible. 
(According to the Seherin, this is the nerve-spirit.) 
" It is not," says Plato, " the pious souls, but those 
of the ungodly, who revisit the earth." 

The testimony of many trustworthy and sensible 
persons of the present day should also be considered. 
I know a number of such, whose experience tends 
to confirm these views ; and I am acquainted with 
many houses, which have long had the reputation of 



184 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

being visited by apparitions. I could relate numer- 
ous authentic histories of this nature ; but, having 
been communicated to me in private circles or letters, 
I could not give my authorities, without too heavily 
taxing that human weakness, which shrinks from the 
ridicule of the world, on these subjects. 

Mayer observes, how much more advanced we 
should be in the knowledge of these spiritual mat- 
ters, were we not restrained from avowing and inves- 
tigating them, by a childish fear of the world ; and 
instances the case of Lichtenburg, a very sensible 
and philosophical-minded man, who relates that, 
being one night in bed, he found himself suddenly 
seized with an unaccountable anxiety about fire, 
which he could not overcome ; and he fancied, at the 
same time, that he felt an unusual warmth at his 
feet, as if from a neighbouring fire. Presently after- 
wards the alarm-bell rang, and I found the fire was 
not in my chamber, but in a tolerably distant house. 
Lichtenburg adds, " I have never related this cir- 
cumstance before, as far as I remember ; because I 
did not choose to take the trouble of defending it 
against the ridiculous views which might be taken 
of it, nor against the scorn of philosophical oppo- 
nents." 

Kant, that deep thinker, says, that he knows as 
little what is to be the condition of man after death, 
as he does how he comes into the world ; or how an 
immaterial spirit can be confined in a material body, 
and make it the instrument of its will. Neither, he 
says, can he feel himself authorized to reject all 



HADES, OR THE MIDDLE-STATE. 185 

ghost-stories : for, however improbable one, taken 
alone, may appear, the mass of them, taken toge- 
ther, command some credence. 



ON HADES, OR THE MIDDLE-STATE. 

Thirty years ago, a controversy was raised by the 
theory of apparitions, propounded by Young, as to 
whether the Bible countenanced the belief of a 
middle-state after death, many being of a contrary 
opinion. But Young calmly and confidently main- 
tained his own, and came triumphantly out of the 
dispute, it appearing incontestible that the New 
Testament supports this belief; and that, up to the 
period of the Reformation, the Church inculcated it. 
But the Reformers set themselves against this per- 
suasion ; and Luther, in his translation of the Bible, 
struck out the words Hades, and the Hebrew equi- 
volent Scheol, and always translated them hell^ or 
the grave. The curious reader may find in Young's 
Apology, the various references to the Bible which 
are connected with this subject. 

Nevertheless, Luther was entirely of opinion that 
the dead may appear to the living, as his own writ- 
ings and experience prove ; and Melanchthon not 
only believes, but gives a remarkable example, 
drawn from his own family — his father's sister 
having appeared to her husband after death, and 
earnestly conjured him to pray for her. 



186 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

In the Greek version of the Testament, the word 
Hades is always substituted for Scheol, both having 
the same signification. But the highest condition in 
Hades was one of bliss ; and, up to the time of Christ, 
this was by the Jews called Paradise, as the lowest 
place was called Gehnenna ; and by this we obtain 
an explanation of the parable of the rich and the 
poor man : 'the former was in the lowest part — the 
place of torture ; the latter in the highest — in Abra- 
ham's bosom. Neither do Christ's words to the 
thief on the cross contradict this belief; he does not 
promise that the thief is immediately to enter heaven, 
since he himself did not do so, according to his own 
words : "I have not yet ascended to my Father." 
When he died upon the cross, he passed into that 
state of transition prepared for all souls ; as when he 
entered the world, he came into it^ as all men do, 
from his mother's womb. It is not consistent with 
Scripture, nor with the nature of things, that man, 
with the corruptions of the world on him,, should 
pass at once from the body into the presence of God, 
It is an acknowledged truth of revealed religion, 
that men carry their works with them to the other 
world — that is, their frame of mind, their desires, 
their aims, and their habits ; and it is remarkable 
how much the ancient mythologies accord with this 
view ; and the old poets do not cease to wonder that 
men cannot leave their cares and their loves behind 
them. Hence arises the anxiety of the dead with 
respect to the honourable disposal of their bodies — 
of which Pliny the younger relates an instance, and 



HADES, OR THE MIDDLE-STATE. 187 

which Young refers to the lamentable remnant of 
earthly prejudice which clings to the spirit. And 
thus, reader, will the doubts of the doubter cling to 
him^ and he will not enter the kingdom of heaven till 
he receives it like a little child. And if he believed 
not in God from his works when on earthy he may 
doubt his existence still, for he will no more see him 
than he did here. He will associate with sinful souls 
like himself; and he may still doubt the necessity 
of virtue, the efficacy of repentance, and the salva- 
tion through his Redeemer. He will despise God's 
messengers as he did here ; and, as here, he will 
attribute his misery to anything but its real cause. 
True faith is an earnest desire after God, and the 
whole purpose of his gracious institutions ; but to 
attain this, we must cast off our pride of human 
understanding, and be humble and poor in spirit. 
Without this, how shall we see God ? It is, as we 
have said, not the blessed, but the unblessed spirits 
that return to earth. They have not cast off their 
low desires and unworthy thoughts when they cast 
off their body ; these have followed them ; and is it 
to be wondered that their weight should bring them 
back to earth where their treasure is ? " Where thy 
treasure is, there shall thy heart be also." And it 
is their punishment that, whilst they are shut out 
from the joys of the righteous on the one hand, they 
are, being incorporeal, excluded from earthly plea- 
sures on the other. 

" Now, when the body dies and falls to dust," 
says Jacob Bbhm, himself a clear-seer, " the soul 



188 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

retains its form, as well as the will that animated it. 
It is certainly away from the body, because in death 
there is separation ; but then the form appears with 
and in those things it here affected, with which it 
had assimilated and become saturated ; for they had 
their sources in itself. It yearns after the things it 
loved on earth — after all that it had treasured^ and 
its will had consented to. If a man expend his 
heart and affections in pride during his lifetime, the 
same emotion shall spring up in the soul-fire over 
his spiritual body, drowning all love and meekness, 
as well as divine freedom, within him ; and he shall 
not be able to learn and enjoy anything ; but pride 
shall swell within him even unto anguish, and he 
shall vainly long for those things in which he had 
been used to take delight. And he shall even glare 
up and swell in pride in the soul-fire, until he quench 
the tender mercy of God ; for he can get no new 
heart, nor can he enter that holy mystery where, 
happily, he might have obtained a better will ; but 
he shall live alone within himself, and naked — pos- 
sessing nothing, and attaining nothing, but what he 
had already imbibed in the world. Suppose, like- 
wise, a miser, who, when in the body, had sold his 
soul to avarice, and would be ever seeking more and 
more ; and now the desire that he yearned after in 
the flesh will be figured in the spirit. When he has 
shaken off this existence, and his being is no longer 
terrestrial, he shall still distort the will of his soul 
into that passion, and plague and torment himself 
therewith." 



HADES, OR THE MIDDLE-STATE. 189 

Might we not believe that Bohm had sketched 
this picture from the apparitions that appeared to 
the Seherin_, so entirely do they resemble each other? 
According to her, the soul takes up with it the 
balance of its worthiness, or unworthiness, as it may 
remain in the life-sphere ; whilst the sun- sphere, 
which served it for external movement and inward 
reflection, having completed its cycle, falls off at 
death ; then moral merit or demerit, vices and crimes, 
are figured in the spiritual form by means of the 
nerve-spirit, which the soul has taken with it. 
False knowledge and erring affections adhere to it 
there, where no new knowledge or affections can 
reach it, since, with its fleshly body, it has lost all 
access to improvement or earthly aid. Love — the 
love of Christ alone, can help it — show it the way 
to hea\en, and furnish the downward-tending soul 
with wings to reach it. 

The other world is a righteous world, where lies 
and wickedness are known ,by their die. Our 
Seeress has merely the faculty of recognizing the 
form without the substance, and the garment by its 
tint, without the woof and warp. Since we logically 
separate form from substance, we must admit that 
the former may subsist without the latter^ and may 
still endure when the substance has fallen off — espe- 
cially in a world where substance is not. There are 
diorama glasses that reflect a picture, with all its 
forms and colours, as if they were realities — what 
substance is there here ? — so is it with the departed 
soul. The profligate may appear in the form of an 



190 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

animal, which in life he resembled ; and the crime 
of infanticide is imaged bj the apparition of such a 
woman with a murdered child in her arms. In this 
world, men has need of a solid body — in the other, 
no such necessity exists. Where matter encounters 
matter, it meets with opposition ; but the insubstan- 
tial forms of the departed souls pass as easily through 
a wall as through an open window. The nerve- 
spirit must not be confounded with imponderable, 
and still less with ponderable, substances. It is a 
power higher than all physical or chemical forces ; 
and, when it is free, these can offer it no resistance, 
whilst it can use them as its instruments. 

Our Seeress is right in representing the spirits in 
the mid-region as more ignorant than they were 
when alive. Wrenched from those worldly con- 
nexions and dependences which constituted their 
wisdom, there remain only their former desires 
without the means of gratification^ together with the 
recollection of their sins. Plato says — " He who 
has lived a vicious life, is more a brute than he was 
before." It is natural, too, to suppose^ that like 
will associate with like; and thus, when spiritual 
ignorance is general, there will be no instruction to 
be got. The evil, separated from the good, 'must 
help themselves, and redeem the time lost on earth 
with tenfold labour. The moral laws of punishment 
and reward in the next world are as precise as the 
physical laws in this ; and every spirit will recognize 
the lot that awaits him as the natural consequence 
of his conduct here. And thus left to himself. 



CONCERNING THE ANNEXED FACTS. IJJl 

without his accustomed earthly nourishment^ de- 
prived of the light of the sun and the verdure of the 
meadow, as in the land of shadows and of death, does 
the butterfly unfold his wings, the brighter and more 
glorious for the darkness and loneliness in which the 
change has been consummated. 



Every thing here adduced, duly considered, the 
following inferences are incontestible : — 

1. That moral weight, (sin,) like physical weight, 
drags downwards, and impedes the disunion with the 
world. 

2. That when the substance (the flesh) is cast off, 
the form remains. 

3. That the form, being without substance, can 
only present itself in the plastic shape, (Schema,) or 
typical ethereal image. 



A FEW WORDS CONCERNING THE ANNEXED FACTS. 

Regarding the facts I am about to relate, I have 
only further to say, that, of the greatest number, I 
was myself a witness ; and that, what I took upon 
the credit of others, I most curiously investigated, 
and anxiously sought, if by any possibility, a natu- 
ral explanation of them could be found ; but in vain. 
And assuredly I can aflirm, that the unaccountable 
sounds alluded to were not made by the Seherin, 
either in her waking or sleep -waking state, for the 



192 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

purpose of deceiving and persuading the world of 
the reality of her ghost-seeing, as has been fre- 
quently suggested — which, indeed, she had no desire 
to do. There are numerous other trustworthy wit- 
nesses to the fact, that these sounds were not pro- 
duced by Mrs. H , nor by any other person 

whatever. Far from priding herself on her gift of 
ghost-seeing, she looked upon it, as it was^ a great 
misfortune ; and, had she been more willing to speak 
on the subject, we should have many more examples 
and particulars to record. She desired to convince 
no one, for she did not believe that faith in these 
things was necessary in a religious point of view, 
and she thought no worse of any body for refusing 
to credit them ; but her own conviction on the sub- 
ject was so firm, that I have heard her say, that if 
she could doubt the reality of these apparitions, she 
should be in danger of insanity, for it would make 
her doubt the reality of every thing she looked upon. 
At the same time, she considered that, as she saw 
the spirits through the medium of her bodily organs, 
her spiritual eye might be troubled by her fleshly 
one, and she might not therefore see them as they 
actually were — or, on the other hand,, they might 
only be able to make themselves visible to her under 
certain conditions ; but she never for a moment ad- 
mitted the possibility of their being mere visions, or 
occular illusions. 

^^ The influences of the spiritual world," says 
Kant, in his dreams of a ghost-seer, *' may so far 
preponderate in the consciousness of a man, that. 



CONCERNING THE ANNEXED FACTS. 193 

according to the law of the association of ideas, 
images that are in relation to it may be raised, and 
analogous conceptions be awakened in the mind, 
which are not the spiritual idea itself, but its 
symbols ; as our pure reason, which approaches to 
the spiritual, commonly clothes itself in material 
forms for the purpose of making itself understood. 
The sensation of the presence of a spirit would, 
through the imagination, array itself in such a human 
form as is agreeable to our minds in life," &c. &c. 

I often represented to the Seherin the theory 
which considers these apparitions as mere pheno- 
mena of the magnetic state and imagination, which, 
by the physical-magnetic operation of the somnam- 
bule, may be communicated to a second or a third 
person ; as, by the organic-magnetic operation, the 
somnambulism of a somnambule may be thus trans- 
ferred. But she maintained that, even if this trans- 
ference were proved, it would imply nothing more 
than that these other persons were brought into a 
magnetic relation with her, and with every thing with 
which she was herself in relation, (rapport^) as she 
certainly was with the spirits ; but that this would 
by no means prove that they were the offspring of 
her imagination; besides, she alleged the instances 
in which persons, who were certainly not en rapport 
with her, and who had never heard of her ghost- 
seeing, had seen them in the very same places. 

In short, I never failed to enforce upon her mind 
the possibility of self-deception, nor to lay before 
her the various theories that account for these things 



194 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

on natural principles, but her conviction was never 
shaken. 

And we must remember how often these pheno- 
mena were attended by audible and sensible signs — 
how often articles were visibly moved, or thrown, 
without any visible agent — and how frequently, as 
she alleged, other persons saw apparitions in places 
where she had seen them, although neither party 
knew what had occurred to the other ; neither must 
we forget the many similar and corroborating his- 
tories on record, a few of which will be hereafter 
mentioned. The most remarkable amongst these 
undoubtedly go to confirm what our Seherin asserted 
— namely, the existence of a world of spectres 
amongst us. But this is a subject that, even when 
our secret presentiments incline us to believe, our 
pride, and fear of ridicule, will not allow us to in- 
vestigate ; and I well know that it is not from the 
present, but a future age, that I must expect cre- 
dence and attention. These revelations, of what 
awaits the sensual and worldly mind, will be too 
unwelcome to have a chance of acceptance ; and I 
am conscious to what scorn I subject myself by 
making them ; but I fear it not ; and I conclude 
by praying that mankind may see their own fate 
mirrored in the piteous countenances of those un- 
happy spirits, who, with all the burden of their 
vices and crimes upon their backs, force themselves 
into our sphere, and learn to take warning ere it is 
too late. 



OCCURRENCES AT OBERSTENFELD. 195 



FACT3. 



TWO FACTS THAT OCCURRED AT OBERSTENFELD. 



The house inhabited by Mrs. H 's father 

formed part of the old cathedral. It had long been 
observed, by the various tenants who lodged in it, 
that many strange noises were heard— as knock- 
ings on the walls and barrels in the cellars, throwing 
of gravel, rolling of balls, and even some times a 
musical sound like that of a triangle — none of which 

could be accounted for ; and at length Mrs. H , 

and other members of her family, occasionally per- 
ceived a spectral female figure. Sounds, as of per- 
sons passing to and fro, were common in the room 
in which her father worked ; and he was actually 
obliged to change his apartment, because an un- 
known animal frequently sat on his shoulder or his 
foot. A noise like the ringing of glasses was also 
frequently heard, but no investigation threw any 
light on the cause. 

It was on New- Year's night, 1825, that as Mrs. 

H was playing and singing a hymn, a noise 

was heard in the hall as of the fall of a heavy weight. 
An immediate search was made to discover the cause 
but without success ; and the subject being forgotten, 



196 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

Mrs. H retired, with her sister and maid- 
servant, to bed. They had been in bed about a 
quarter of an hour, and were still awake, when they 
observed the night-candlestick, which was burning 
on a table in the middle of the room, begin to move 
about, so that they not only saw the motion, but 
heard it, although the table, and every thing else, 

stood fast. Whilst Mrs. H was observing this, 

there appeared by her bedside a cloudy form, habited 
like a knight, so thin, that she fancied she could see 
through it, and said to her — " Go with me ; thou 
canst loosen my bonds." On this occasion, as on all 
others,, the voice of the spirit was not like the voice 
of a man, but the words seemed to be breathed forth. 
She answered — " I will not go with thee ;" and, 
overcome with terror, she sprang into the bed where 
her sister and the maid lay, crying — " Do you not 
see something?" They said they did not; and she 
said no more for fear of alarming them. She sent 
the maid to lie in her bed, which was in front of 
her sister s, and the maid, taking some of the bed- 
covering with her, it was forcibly pulled from her 
by an unseen hand. After that, they slept quietly 
the rest of the night. 

On the following night, at the desire of his pa- 
rents, her brother, a courageous man, slept in the 
room with her on a couple of chairs, lest the appa- 
rition should return. Exactly at twelve o'clock, 
after the light had been moved audibly and visibly 
to all, the spectre appeared. She cried — " There it 
is again ! " But though her brother and all saw the 



OCCURRENCES AT OBERSTENFELD. 1 97 

light moving, they saw no spectre. It nevertheless 
stood by her bedside, and she distinctly perceived it 
was the form of a knight. He appeared about fifty 
years of age, and the countenance was angry. Then, 
even visibly to the eyes of the brother, her bedstead, 
and that of her sister, began to shake ; and the 
spirit breathed forth to her — " If thou goest not 
with me, I will fling thee out of the window." 
She said — " In the name of Jesus, do it;" whereon 
the form disappeared, but presently returned, say- 
ing — ^' I will cast thee into the deep cellar." She 
made the same answer; whereon it again vanished^ 
but returned a third time, threatening to stab her ; 
but, on her saying, '^ Thou hast not the power to do 
it," it disappeared, and returned no more for three 
nights. 

On the third night it appeared again by her bed- 
side, and said — " You must go with me. I have 
concealed some thing under the sand-box ; there is 
some writing and a few coins. This I must give 
you, and then I shall have rest." She said — " I will 
not go with you ; this thing cannot make you 
happy." The figure then disappeared. This event 
affected her much, and she became so ill that she 
could not leave her bed. Her parents hereupon re- 
moved her to an upper room, where they had slept 
themselves, in hopes she might be no further mo- 
lested ; but, on the contrary, the spectre appeared 
to her for seven days, at all hours of the day and 
night — both when she was in the somnambulic state, 
and when she was awake. He told her that he was 



198 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

of the family of the Weilers of Litchenberg, and that 
he had murdered his brother; hence his unhappy 
state. He frequently told her that there was some- 
thing of importance in a certain vault under the 
church ; but she always answered him with the 
word of God, and prayers. She prayed earnestly 
with him^ at which times she saw him kneel ; and 
she brought him by degrees from the vain idea that 
the writing he sought could afford him comfort. 
The first three nights that he came to the upper 
room, her parents heard a noise at the window, and 
a pane sprung out just before he appeared. On the 
seventh night, he came just at midnight, when she 
was quite awake, and thanked her for having led 
him to his Redeemer ; telling her that the hour of 
his release approached. He knelt by her bedside, 
and prayed with her for the last time ; and his form 
was now much brighter and more pleasing. Sud- 
denly seven children appeared, white, bright, and 
joyful ; they were his children, and they formed a 
circle round him, and sang melodiously ; the spirit 
sang with them, as did also Mrs. H , who here- 
upon fell asleep, continuing still to sing. Presently 
she awoke again, and conversed further with the 
spectre. He wished to make a mark on her hand, 
but she would not give it him ; and he did not leave 
her till her protecting spirit^ her grandmother, stept 
in between him and her ; then he took two of his 
children by the hand, and all disappeared. She long 
remembered this spectre with a mingled feeling of 
joy and melancholy. 



OCCURRENCES AT OBERSTENFELD. 199 



At that time, being in a somnambulic state, Mrs. 

H was accustomed to say her prayers alone in 

a deserted kitchen. As she was kneeling there one 
morning about nine o'clock, there appeared before 
her a short figure, with a dark cowl and an old-look- 
ing wrinkled face ; the head hung forwards, and it 
looked for some minutes steadfastly on her, as she 
did on it ; but, being seized with fear, she fled to 
the upper rooms, where her friends were, saying- 
nothing, however, of what she had seen. But it 
appeared again before her as she was praying another 
day, and said — " I come to thee, that I may learn 
to know my Redeemer." For a whole year from 
that time, this spectre was wont to appear to her at 
different times of the day, whether she were asleep 
or awake ; but he came invariably at seven o'clock 
in the evening, and begged her to pray with him. 
He said — " You must deal with me as a child, and 
instruct me in religion from the commencement." 
He told her that the burden of murder, and of other 
crimes, lay upon him, and that he had wandered for 
many years without being able to address himself to 
prayer. She instructed him as she would have done 
a child; and, by degrees, his form became more 
bright and cheerful. His appearance was always 
preceeded by knockings on the walls, noises in the 
air, and other sounds, which were heard by many 



200 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

different people, as can be testified by more than 
twenty credible witnesses. 

There was a trampling up and down stairs by 
day and night to be heard, but no one to be seen^ as 
well as knockings on the walls and in the cellars ; 
but, however suddenly a person flew to the place 
to try and detect whence the noise proceeded, they 
could see nothing. If they went outside, the knock- 
ing was immediately heard inside, and vice versa. 
However securely they closed the kitchen door — 
nay, if they tied it with cords — it was found open 
in the morning ; and though they frequently rushed 
to the spot on hearing it open or shut, they never 
could find anybody. Sounds, as of breaking wood, 
of pewter plates being knocked together, and the 
crackling of a fire in the oven, were also commonly 
heard, but the cause of them could not be discovered. 
A sound resembling that of a triangle was also fre- 
quently heard; and not only Mrs. H , but 

others of her family, often saw a spectral female 
form. 

The noises in the house became at length so re- 
markable, that her father declared he could stay in 
it no longer ; and they were not only audible to 
every body in it, but to the passengers in the street, 
who stopped to listen to them as they passed. Mrs. 

H- said in her sleep, that the evil spirits wished 

to impede the one with whom she prayed, that he 
might not sever himself from them. One night after 
this unusual noise, the spectre appeared to her with 
a dark and angry aspect ; she fled, and fell on the 



OCCURRENCES AT OBERSTENPELD. 201 

threshold of the door, and tried to rise, but could 
not ; then she felt a hand on her right arm^ and per- 
ceived a female form, who raised her from the 
ground. On the following day, when she was 
nearly falling from a false step on the stairs^ the 
same form saved her. She was then quite awake. 
In the evening, the spectre appeared and thanked 
her for praying with him. Once he appeared in 
company with a female form, who appeared tall and 
wasted, and held a new-born child in her arms. 

This figure, whom Mrs. H recognized as the 

one often seen by the family, knelt and prayed with 
him. 

The spectre would appear to her even in the fields. 
Thus, as she was once returning from Bottwar with 
her parents, and another time from Gronau, it came 
to her as the clock struck seven, and hovered before 
her ; whilst she rather flew than run ; so that those 
with her could not follow, nor could they see her 
feet touch the earth. The spectre preceded her all 
the way till they reached the kitchen, where she 
knelt and prayed with it ; after which it would speak 
with her — sometimes saying, " Now a sun rises with- 
in me, or shines in me.*' 

She once asked him, if he could hear other people 
speak as well as her. He answered, " I hear them 
through you. When you hear others, you think 
what they speak ; and I read your thoughts." On 
asking him why he made these noises ; he said, it was 
to make men think of him, which afforded him con- 
solation and refreshment. Whenever she played on 



202 THE SEERE6S OF PREVORST. 

the pianoforte and sang, the spirit always began to 
knock on the wall — especially when she sang " How 
great is thy goodness/' 

Of the inhabitants of the house, none saw the 
ghost except her father, brother, and youngest sister, 
who saw it frequently. It sometimes appeared in 

the form of a silver serpent. Mrs. H 's mother 

never saw the spectre, but she felt it breathing on 
her, as did the elder sister. It accompanied Mrs. 
H — — to the sacrament, and said " You have taken 
it for me." A forester, named Bbheim, who could 
not believe in the reality of this spectre, placed him- 
self by Mrs. H 's bedside, at the hour it usually 

appeared. He had been there a few minutes, when 
the knocking was heard, and presently a heavy 
sound, as of a fall — Boheim had fainted. When he 
came to himself, he related, that immediately after 
the knocking, he saw a greyish cloud standing in the 
corner of the wall, which gradually approached the 
bed, and took on the form and features of a man ; 
and, as it placed itself in the way of the door, he 
could not get out of the room. When others en- 
tered to his assistance, he wondered how they could 
have run against the spectre without perceiving iL 
A black terrier that was in the house was always 
aware of the presence of the spirit, and crept howl- 
ing to his masters ; neither would he lie alone at 
night. Articles were often moved by an unseen 
Land — glasses and bottles taken from the table, and 
placed on the floor — and also papers in her father's 
study ; and sometimes they would be flung after him. 



OCCURRENCES AT OBBRSTENFELD. 203 

In November 1825, when Mrs. H went to 

Kiirnbach, the spectre went there also. He said, 
'^ Where you are, I must be ; but I shall soon be 
more at rest. It is painful for me to go with you." 
Every night, from eleven to twelve o'clock, she in- 
structed him in religion like a child. Once he said 
to her, " I shall not come to you for seven days ; 
for your protecting spirit is absent on an urgent 
affair, which is occurring in your family — and of 
which you will hear on Wednesday — and without 
her you could not endure me." In the morning she 
related what the spectre had said ; and, on the Wed- 
nesday, there arrived a letter, to say that her grand- 
father, (the husband of her protecting spirit,) whom 
nobody suspected to be ill, was dead. When the 
seven days had elapsed, the spectre reappeared ; and, 
on her asking him why her protectress had left her, 
he said, '^ she was engaged with the dying man." 
This will bring to mind the dream the grandfather 
had, seven days before his death. The spectre said, 
" I am now so far advanced, that I saw the dead 
man pass through a beautiful valley ; I shall soon 
be admitted into a beautiful valley myself." Whilst 
she was in Kiirnbach, the spectre was still heard 
knocking at Oberstenfeld — but early; at one, two, 
or three o'clock in the morning — after he had been 
engaged with her at Kiirnbach. 

When she went from Kiirnbach to Lowenstein, it 
still accompanied her, hovering beside the carriage ; 
and there the sounds it made were heard by many 
people. But, as the spectre became brighter, these 



204 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

became less audible ; and, on the 6th January 1826^ 
he appeared to her for the last time. On the pre- 
vious evening he had said, " I shall soon visit you 
for the last time/' The 6th was the baptismal day 
of her child ; and, having thanked her for the inte- 
rest she had taken in him, he requested that, at the 
baptism, a certain hymn might be sung, to help him 
to his rest. On account of the strangers present, 
this was deferred ; and whilst the company were at 

luncheon — Mrs. H* being, with her maid, in her 

own chamber — the door was opened, and then shut 

again. Her maid was surprised, but Mrs. H 

did not tell her the cause. The spectre, however, 
entered, and reminded her of his request ; whereon 
she sent for her mother, and told her what had hap- 
pened ; but the mother still wished to defer it till 
the company were gone. But when two hours had 
elapsed, the door again opened and shut, visibly and 
audibly ; and the spectre, placing himself before her, 
said, in a complaining voice, " It is now full time 

the hymn were sung.'' Mrs. H-- again spoke to 

her mother, who thereon informed the company of 
what had happened, and they immediately prepared 
to sing the hymn. One of the party sat down to 
the pianoforte ; and, whilst they sang, the father of 

Mrs. H saw the spectre near the player, with a 

bright, joy<^iis aspect. He was affected at the sight, 
and went into tlie next room ; and there he saw the 
tall, female spectre, looking very sad, with an infant 
in her arms. During the singing of the hymn, Mrs. 
H lay dissolved in tears. 



OCCURRENCES AT WEINSBERG. 205 

By her direction, a certain spot in the court-yard, 
near that kitchen, was dug up, and they there found 
the bones of a small child. 



During the time she was at Lowenstein, at her 
uncle's, (at the same period that this second spectre 
appeared to her there,) she every night saw an elderly 
man, in a long waistcoat and pointed cap, with a 
bundle of papers under his arm, come from the inner 
room into the outer, where she sat. He turned the 
papers over, from the first leaf to the last, and then 
returned whence he came. She saw him very often, 
but he never spoke to her, nor she to him. This 
spectre was, at a later period, partly seen and partly 
heard by other people, and the fact of his appearance 
confirmed. 



FACTS WHICH OCCURRED AT WEINSBERG. 

Mrs. H came to Weinsberg on 25th Novem- 
ber 1826. She knew no one there — not even me — 
and was lodged in a small room, on the ground-floor, 
next to the house, and over the wine-vaults of 

Mr. F ; of which, however, she knew nothing. 

Mr. F was an entire stranger to her, and was 

not aware of her lodging there ; and the following 
circumstances he only learned ultimately through 

me. It is possible that Mrs. H may have heard, 

that a certain K had conducted Mrs. F 's 

afiairs in a very prejudicial manner ; but, if so, she 



206 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

had no recollection of it. This man had been dead 
some years ; she had never seen him ; nor had she 
any connexion with anybody concerned with his or 

Mr. F 's afiairs, of which the public had ceased 

to talk. 

On the first evening, when she fell into her natu- 
ral magnetic trance, before I had magnetized her at 
all, she said that there was a man near her, with a 
very piteous countenance, who seemed to desire 
something of her, but she could not understand 
what. On the 24th December, being in the mag- 
netic sleep, she said, " That man is here again ; he 
comes up from the vaults below, at the hour of my 
sleep. Oh ! that he would stay away ; for he dis- 
turbs my sleep, and I cannot help him. I can point 
out where he sits in the vault ; it is behind the fourth 
barrel, and he leaves the place at the hour of my 
sleep. Ah ! how his right eye squints ! He steps 
forward. Oh, do not ! I cannot help you. Does 
no one see him but me ? He keeps nodding to me, 
and wishes to tell me something." 

On the 25th — on which day, for the first time, 

Mr. F was present, for I believed the spectre 

to have been that of a relation of his — she said, 
" He is there again, and disturbs me in my sleep. 
"What is it he is shewing me ? A sheet of figures, 
not quite so large as a folio. The upper right-corner 
is turned down ; in the left there is a number. Under 
the first row of figures, I see an 8 and a 0. I can- 
I not read more ; it begins with a J. This paper 
I lies under many others, and is not observed. He 



OCCURRENCES AT WEINSBERG. 207 

wishes me to tell my physician, and thus give notice 
of it. Why will he so torment me ? Can he not 
tell his wife of it ? He wished to have told it be- 
fore his death, but did not expect to die so soon ; 
and, dying so, it accompanied his soul, like a piece 
of his body." It is quite true that the person died 
unexpectedly ; for she described the figure so exactly, 
from the squinting eye, that I recognized it to be 

the deceased K . She said, " I must away 

from him ; I can bear him no more to-day." 

On the 26 th, being in a deep magnetic sleep, she 
tried to find the place where this paper was. She 
said, " It lies in a building, which is sixty paces 
from my bed. (We must here observe, that Mrs. 

H had never seen this building.) In this I see 

a large and a smaller room. In the latter sits a tall 
gentleman, at a table, and works. Now he goes out, 
and now he returns. Beyond these rooms, there is 
one still larger, in which are some chests, and a long 
table. There is one long chest, and one stands in 
the entrance, the door of which is open. But these 
chests do not concern this man. But on the table 
there is a wooden thing — I cannot name it — and on 
this lie three heaps of paper ; and in the middle one, 
a little below the centre, lies the sheet that so tor- 
ments him." 

I recognized the building to be the office of the 
High Bailiff" ; and, believing what Mrs. H de- 
scribed to be merely a vision, I went to him, and 
requested him to let us search the papers, that so we 
might undeceive her. 



208 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

The High Bailiff, who equally looked upon the 
whole as a dream^ said that she was, however, right 
in saying that he was at work at that time ; and that 
it was true he had gone into the next room, and he 
had observed the lid of the chest open. But, al- 
though struck with this coincidence, we were con- 
firmed in our notion of the whole being a dream, 
when, on searching the papers — too hastily, perhaps 

— which lay, indeed, as Mrs. H had described 

them, we could not find the one we sought. I, how- 
ever, requested the High Bailiff to come and be a 

witness to the thing himself, when next Mrs. H 

slept. After prescribing for herself, she again spoke 
of the man, whom she called " the man that sits 
behind the fourth barrel ;" where, she said, she saw 
him every night. She blamed me for not seeking 
the paper more carefully, and besought me to do it ; 
and she described more particularly where it lay, 
and added, that it was folded in strong brown paper. 
I declared there was no such thing, and that the 
whole was a dream ; but she calmly answered, that 
the paper must, and would be found. 

In order to quiet her, when she recurred to the 
subject in her evening sleep, I — who did not, at this 
time, understand Mrs. H 's character, and be- 
lieved the whole to be a dream — gave her a sheet of 
paper, on which were several numbers, and, at the 
bottom, the number 80 ; and I told her that that was 
what she wanted. But she said, " No ; that paper 
is still in its place, and the figures on it are much 
more regularly placed than these are." 



OCCURRENCES AT WEINSBERG. 209 

On the Slst, she said, " The man behind the bar- 
rel threatens to disturb me in heaven, if I will not 
find the paper ; but he cannot do that. He has died i 
with this thought upon him ; it binds him to earth, j 
and leaves him no peace. If the paper was found, ! 
he might, by prayer, obtain salvation. For God's j 
sake, seek it ! Were I able to walk, it would soon ( 
be found." She was still much agitated when she J 
awoke, and it was plain that this disturbance of her 1 
sleep was affecting her health, and throwing her i 
back. In consequence of this, I went once more to ; 
the High Bailiff, and begged him to let us have an- 
other search ; and then, indeed, exactly enclosed as 

Mrs. H had described, we found a sheet of 

paper, corresponding precisely with her directions, 
even to the turning down of the corner; which, I 
confess, gave me a shudder when I saw it, for it ap- 
peared to have been done long ago. This paper 

contained the only proof extant that Mr. K 

had kept a private account-book, which, after his 
death, could not be found ; and which, it was said, 
his widow denied all knowledge of. 

The Bailiff and I agreed to say nothing of the 
finding of this paper, and he promised to be present 
at the evening sleep ; and though I did not request 
him to do it, I concluded he would bring the paper ^ 
with him, to shew her. He came ; and, as usual, 
she returned to the subject, saying, " There he stands 
again, but he looks calmer — the paper must be found ; / 
fetch it." I said, (believing it to be in the Bailiff's / 
pocket,) " If it be found, where is it?" Thereupon) 



210 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

she fell into a sort of cataleptic state, looking like 
one already dead, but glorified — so bright were her 
features. Presently she said, " The papers are no 
longer there ; but, ah ! — that is surprising ! — the one 
the man has always in his hand lies there open. 
Now I can read more — ' To be carried into my private 
book/ Ah ! that is the line he always points to — he 
wishes to direct attention to that book. What is now 
to be done with this paper? — Ah, I shudder to think 
what that poor woman will do. Let her be warned ; 
then he will get rest, and be allowed to approach his 
Redeemer." These words, as he afterwards told me, 
astonished the Bailiff; for, as an experiment, he had 
placed the paper just as she described. 

On the 1st January she said, the man wished his 
wife to be advised to do something, or she would be 
more unhappy than he was ; and she spoke of writ- 
ing to her herself. 

When I came to her on the 2d, she being quite 
awake — in which state she knew nothing of this 
subject — she said to me, ^^ Last night I had a great 
fright. At nine o'clock I asked for something to 
eat ; my maid gave it me, and then went to bed, and 
to sleep. I, however, remained awake ; when, all at 
once, I heard a sound by my bedside, like writing ; 
and, when I looked, I saw a man sitting at the table, 
writing in a book. I was alarmed, and, shutting my 
eyes, did not venture to open them again till I fell 
asleep." 

In her next magnetic sleep, I asked her if this had 
not been a dream ; but she said, '' No, it was that 



OCCURRENCES AT WEINSBERG. 211 

dead man ; he wished, by means of that book, to 
direct attention to his private book. He had on a 
white woollen dress and slippers, such as he was 
wont to wear when he wrote in that book. He 
wishes me to warn his wife ; but it will cost me much 
trouble to find the book, and I shall fall back in my 
health for seven days." As, both on account of the 

family of this man, and on account of Mrs. H 'a 

health, I disliked this business, I put her into deeper 
sleep, and besought her to leave the matter alone, 
and think of her own recovery ; but she said, this 
warning was put upon her by the dead man as a 
duty, and what was to become of her if she did not 
do it ? 

On the 3d January, being quite awake, she said to 
me, " To-day, at three o'clock, that man came again. 
The door opened perceptibly, and he entered, and 
again seated himself at the table to write. He had 
on a loose white coat, a white cap, and slippers. 

A woman, who slept in the room with Mrs. H , 

declared she was awakened by the shutting of the 
door ; whereupon she looked up, and saw a form, 
like a grey cloud, move towards the table. She 

called to Mrs. H , who did not answer ; so, 

being frightened, she hid her head under the clothes. 

On that day, Mrs. H dictated the following 

letter to her sister, whilst she was asleep : — 

" I must write to this unfortunate, innocent wo- 
man, and say, ' Your deceased husband appears to 
me every evening, and shews me a paper which lies 



2 I 2 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

in the High Bailiff's office ; and he points to the 
words, ' Carried into the private book/ From the 
other world this departed soul bids me warn you, 
lest you should forswear yourself. For the sake of 
your Redeemer, and your husband, hide nothing in 
your heart which may torment you hereafter. Be 
not offended with me ; I am innocent of this — I 
know nothing of it when I am awake. I never saw 
either you or your husband ; nor did I ever hear of 
this affair, till he came to me, and bade me seek the 
paper, because this thought kept him from his rest. 
Do now what your conscience bids you. God be 
gracious to you, and your family, and keep you 
guiltless.' " 

Mrs. H would not rest till this letter was 

delivered ; so we sent it, saying, that we looked on 
the whole as the illusion of a diseased person, but 

advised her to speak to Mrs. H when she was 

asleep, which the latter much desired ; and to this 
the lady consented. 

In the evening, before she fell asleep, I wrote her 
some lines, to the following purpose : 

If, when this woman comes, we find 
She's innocent in deed and mind, 

And weeps to be thought guilty ; 
Will you not grieve, for having said 
Her husband cannot rest, when dead ? 

On reading this, she said, " Is any weeping wo- 
man coming here ? " and afterwards, being asleep, 
she wrote with closed eyes — 



OCCURRENCES AT WEINSBERG. 213 

Whether it grieves my heart or not. 
My spirit must speak boldly out, 
And warn the weeper, ere too late, 
What will be her future fate. 

Accordingly, Mrs. K^ came in the evening. 

with the magistrate P ; and when I had mag- 
netized Mrs. H , she asked me — being asleep — 

on what I was thinking when I made the passes, as 
she felt an unusual intensity in me. I answered, 
'^ I'm thinking on the widow of that deceased man, 
who is now here to speak with you.'* She said she 
was glad of it ; and then, after prescribing, as usual, 
for herself, she turned to her, and said calmly, ^' Of 
what I now say to you, I bodily know nothing — it 
is my spirit that speaks ; and did I know this when 
I am awake, it would kill me. Listen ! I know 
neither you nor your husband — I am a stranger here ; 
but, ever since I have slept over these vaults, your 
husband has appeared to me nightly, bidding me 
seek a paper, and also warn you not to carry an 
earthly thought above with you, or do what may 
make you more unhappy than he is. The paper is 
found — you are apprized of it — ^and he looks calmer." 

Mrs. K assured us that she would take no 

such thought above — that her husband never commu- 
nicated his affairs to her — that she knew of no private 
book — and that no oath concerning it had been re- 
quired of her. Mrs. H told her that that 

would happen yet ; and asked whether she would 
search for the book. After this, she lay for an un- 
usual time in a cold, deathlike state, out of which I 



214 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

drew her with difficulty, by passes ; she then prayed 

earnestly with Mrs. K , who left her much 

affected. 

The singleness and truth of this story none can 
appreciate, but those who observed the progress of 
the affair from the commencement, or who are ac- 
quainted with the parties concerned, especially Mrs. 
H ; but, as for those who have had such oppor- 
tunities of judging, and yet talk of deception, it can 
only be from malice. 

" Attempts were made, as is always the case, to 
explain the above circumstances by natural and ordi- 
nary causes ; but I, who had the best means of 
knowing the circumstances, must not only maintain 
my own opinion, but I must beg leave to support it 
by the statement of the High Bailiff, which he drew 
up for the satisfaction of his friends. 

'' Mrs. H came here, a stranger, to seek the 

advice of Dr. K , and engaged a lodging next 

door to the warehouses of Mr. F , whose affairs, 

some time before, had been conducted by a Mr. K , 

so unsatisfactorily, that F remained a loser of 

1000 florins; for the recovery of which certain pro- 
ceedings followed against the widow and children of 

K , especially for the giving up of a private 

book, alluded to in a certain paper. These cir- 
cumstances were, however, quite unknown to Mrs. 

H ." (Here follows a relation of the above 

affair, which it is needless to repeat ; the Bailiff as- 
serting positively, that no one but himself knew 



OCCURRENCES AT WEINSBERG. 215 

that he had opened and spread out the paper before 

he came to Mrs. H . He then proceeds to say,) 

^' By those who are determined to believe the whole 

of these circumstances a mere contrivance of F 

to frighten K 's widow, I ask, how can they ac- 
count for Mrs. H *s describing me at work in 

the office, at a time that was quite unusual ; or for 
her mention of the open chest, &c. in a room, where, 
I am sure, none but myself and my people had been 
for a week ; and lastly, for her knowledge of the 
turned-down corner of a paper, that had not been 
seen for several years ? 

" High-Bailiff Heyd." 

I must here repeat, that Mr. F knew nothing 

of Mrs. H , and only went to see her at my 

request, in consequence of this affair, to which he 
listened with great surprise; and that he never 
visited her but twice afterwards, and then it was 
for the purpose of assisting at some experiments, to 
ascertain the effect of grapes. 

With regard to the foregoing story, Eschenmayer 
thus speaks : — 

" Mrs. H , not having long been in Weins- 

berg, and a stranger to the place and its inhabitants, 
and even to her own physician, sees a deceased per- 
son holding a paper in his hand, which she describes ; 
and he tells her where it is, and says that it must be 
found before he can have rest. She relates this, and 
describes the man so accurately, that he is fully re- 
cognized. To procure rest for this spirit, she en- 



216 THE SEERESS OF PREVORSf. 

treats her physician to find the paper — pointing out 
exactly where it lies, together with all the particulars 
regarding the room it is in ; the whole of which turns 
out to be correct. The physician, who believes all 
this to be delusion, seeks the paper in the place 
named, but does not find it ; although the owner of 
the house admits that every thing was correctly de- 
scribed. He tells her he cannot find it ; but she 
complains of his indifference, and urges him to seek 
it again, giving him further indications. He does 
so^ and finds it exactly where she said it was, and 
where it had been for six years. She is not told 
that the paper is found ; yet she next sees the spectre 
looking more content, a.nd concludes that it is so. 
She then tries to find again where it is, and describes 
it exactly as the High Bailiff himself had placed it. 
The solution of this tale is in these words — ^ Ah 1 
what now is to be done with this paper ? Ah ! I 
shudder to think what that poor woman may do, if 
she be not warned. She must be warned ; then he 
will have peace, and, by prayer, may be reconciled 
to his Redeemer.' " 

The paper made known the existence of a secret 
book, which had been lost sight of. The widow was 
in danger of being called on to produce it, upon 
oath ; and here was a warning, to prevent her doing 
what might have caused her deeper woe than her 
husband was suffering. Here was a moral end ob- 
tained by. the appearance of the spectre. 

Mrs. H had no acquaintance in Weinsberg — 

still less did she know any one who had any interest 



OCCURRENCES AT WEINSBERG. 21? 

in the finding of this paper. Indeed, nobody had 

but Mr. F ^ ; and him she never saw, till Dr. 

Kerner brought him to her, after she had spoken of 
the apparition. And with what justice can the op- 
ponents so malign the character of the Seherin ? for, 
since these circumstances cannot be accounted for by 
self-deception — to deny them, is to arraign her mo- 
rality and truth. It is also remarkable, that every 
thing delivered by clairvoyants, in the third or highest 
degree, tends eminently to the promotion of morality 
and religion ; and how shall we reconcile all that 
she says on this subject with deliberate imposition ? 
Those who malign her, forget that a slanderer is as 
bad as a deceiver. How can they believe that one, 
whose life was a series of sufferings and trials — who 
foresaw her own approaching death — and who de- 
clared so explicitly the punishment that awaited 
deceivers beyond the grave — would pass her life in 
carrying on a system of fraud ? Those at a distance 
cannot be fair judges in this case ; of which, all we 
can offer is but a faint sketch. To feel the intuitive 
conviction of truth that she inspired in all around 
her, a person must have seen her in all her various . 
conditions. The brightness or glory in which her 
friends so often saw her, was beyond human pretence : 
" If the devil can," as St. Paul says, " assume the 
appearance of an angel, man cannot." It has long 
been clear to me that such apparitions are permitted, 
in order to shew the worldly-minded their helpless- 
ness, and the iusufiiciency of those natural laws, to 
which they cling like a worm to its clod. Assuredly, 



218 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

nature is nothing but the foundation for the spirit, 
by which it is to reach the regions of eternal free- 
dom, elevated far above all natural laws. This king- 
dom of freedom extends through the whole spiritu- 
ality of the universe, and man is but a link added 
on to the chain; and this truth being despised, 
and forgotten, and overwhelmed, by the understand- 
ings of the world — these contemned instruments are 
sent to confound them. 

Mr. F says — " Although I had no belief in 

apparitions, and was very suspicious with regard to 
somnambules^ on this occasion my own eyes and ears 

convinced me there was no deception. Mrs. H 

was an entire stranger here ; she took the lodging 
from my tenant unknown to me ; and the people 
that were about her knew nothing of the history of 

K , and had no interest in it whatever. The 

affair, which happened seven years before, had long 
ceased to be talked of, and the matter had become 
so indifferent to me, that, when the paper was 
spoken of, I had at first some difficulty in bringing 
it to mind. I had never mentioned a word about it 
to anybody whatever ; and no one but the magis- 
trate had ever heard of it, neither had there been 
any threat of calling for its production. I am 
thoroughly satisfied that the Seherin had no informa- 
tion on the. subject ; the more so, that nobody but 
myself had any interest in the matter. However 
incomprehensible these circumstances may be, I am 
convinced that they cannot be disproved. 

" What I here affirm is the simple truth, which 



OCCURRENCES AT WEINSBERG. 219 

can be verified by official papers ; and every body is 
at liberty to make what use they please of my decla- 
ration. 

^' Finance Minister Fezer/'* 



SECOND FACT. 

It has been mentioned that Mrs. H and her 

family frequently heard a sound resembling a 
triangle, and, about the same period, saw a female 
form, which latterly appeared with a child in her 
arms, and with a melancholy aspect. The following 
apparition seems to have some connexion with 
this circumstance : On the 6th October 1827, as I 

and other persons were in Mrs. H 's chamber, 

the door opened and then closed ; but although we 
immediately searched, we saw nobody who could 
have done this ; and it is unnecessary to observe, 
that, though a door may open of itself, it will not 
shut again without there be a draught, or some im- 
pulse given to it. Presently afterwards we heard a 
sweet metallic sound in the air of the room we were 
in, which lasted some minutes, but nothing was to be 

seen. On the following morning, Mrs. H being 

in her room with only one person, the same sound 
was heard, and presently after she saw a female 
form at the door which led from the ante-room into 

* The early part of this declaration consists of some particu- 
lars regarding Mr. F 's connexion with K , and the de- 
falcation of the latter, which we have not thought necessary 
to insert. — Translator. 



220 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST* 

her chamber. The figure was tall and thin, not old, 
and attired in a brown robe, which had many folds ; 
on her head was the veil which the female spectres 
always appeared in. On the 11th the same thing 
recurred after the triangle had been heard, or, at 

least, a sound which resembled one ; and Mrs. H 

heard the figure say distinctly — " Who sits in dark- 
ness, as I do, endures great torment." On the next 
day it came again, and advanced farther into the 
room, but said nothing. 

On the night between the 15th and 16th, Mrs. 

H was awakened by this figure standing by 

her bedside, and saying — " I would be happy, and 
I know I can only become so through my Redeemer. 

How can I approach Him ? " Mrs. H answered 

— " Through earnest and continual prayer for grace 
and forgiveness;'* whereupon the female disappear- 
ed. On the night of the 31st she came again at one 
o'clock, saying — " Will you pray with me ? " and 

Mrs. H now recognized her as the spectre she 

had seen at Oberstenfeld with a child in her arms, 
and sometimes accompanied by a man. She became 
alarmed, and said — " Pray for yourself, I cannot pray 
with you," &c. &c. ; whereon the spectre looked 
sad, and departed. On the night of the 1st November 
she came again, and asked some questions which 
had reference to the spectre with whom she had ap- 
peared at Oberstenfeld, but in the morning Mrs. 

H had forgotten what it was. On the night of 

the 27th, the spectre returned, and again asked her 
to pray with her, which Mrs. H — — refused ; when 



OCCURRENCES AT WEINSBERG. 221 

I asked her why, she said that she did not think the 
spirit was in a state which could make her prayers 
available, and that she was afraid of her, and it 
would make her ill. 

On the 30th November, at seven o'clock, as her 
family were sitting at Oberstenfeld, her brother saw 
this same spectre, whom he had often seen before, 
pass through the door of the room. On the night of 
the 4th, she came again, with her arms crossed on 
her breast, and looked silently and sadly at Mrs, 

H . On her appearing some nights after, Mrs. 

H 's child saw her. and at first laughed, pointing 

to her as to somebody he knew, but immediately 
after he laid himself back on the shoulder of the 
person who carried him, as if afraid. It appeared 
that he remembered having seen her at Oberstenfeld. 

On the night of the 13th, the spirit came again, 
but clothed in a white robe ; and she said — " The 
time is come for me to know that Jesus Christ was 

really the Son of God," &c. &c. Mrs. H said 

— " What time is this ? " She answered — " It is 
the time when we see the happy spirits keep their 
festival. I know that man can only be saved 
through God's mercy. Pray for the strengthening of 

my faith." Mrs. H prayed with her earnestly ; 

after which^ she appeared to her no more. 



Four years after this had happened, and two years 
after Mrs. H 's death, the following circum- 
stance occurred at Oberstenfeld, which may serve as 
some proof of the reality of the spectres seen by Mrs, 



222 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

H , and that they were not subjective, but ob- 
jective — at least to those who are not determined to 
reject these facts altogether, because they are con- 
trary to their notions of God and the world. Some 

years after Mrs. H had quitted Oberstenfeld, 

the magistrate PfaflBien came there, and purchased 
one of the old cathedral houses, which he rebuilt. 
Under the cathedral was a cellar, of which he had 
the use. 

Before proceeding farther, we must mention that 
Mr P. never saw the Seherin in his life — never 
had read her history, nor heard of this instance 
of her ghost-seeing ; and, before he went there, all 
her family had left Oberstenfeld. He was thus 
ignorant and unsuspicious of the whole affair. He 
is a healthy man, enlightened and educated, no 
hypocrite, and no believer in ghosts. The following 
story, which he vouches for on his honour, should at 
least make the doubter pause. It is easy to pro- 
nounce on these things, with a pen in your hand, by 
the fireside, but how few, for the love of truth, will 
take the trouble to travel a few miles to see the 
parties concerned, and investigate the facts. When 
the Seherin was alive, and these things talked of, 
did any of those, who now write volumes of refuta- 
tion, ever take the trouble to come and see her, and 
hear her, and examine her themselves ? No ; they 
sat still at their desks, and yet consider themselves 
better able to pronounce on these facts than the 
calm, earnest, profound psychologist, Eschenmayer, 
who examined everything on the spot, and in per- 



OCCURRENCES AT WEINSBERG. 223 

son, and thought nothing of taking a journey, in the 
depth of winter, for the purpose. So only on such 
subjects can truth be elicited. Learning and specu- 
lation cannot supply the place of personal investiga- 
tion. I return to my story — 

" As I one day/' says Mr P., '' went into the 
cellar under the cathedral, I heard a knocking 
behind one of the barrels, so loud and distinct, that 
concluding it was the cooper at work, I called to 
him, but there was no answer ; whereon I sprang 
behind the barrel, but could see no one there, nor in 
any part of the cellar. I left the place without dis- 
covering the mystery ; but I had no suspicion of any 
supernatural cause, and least of all did I think of 
spectres. I frequently went into the cellar after- 
wards, but heard nothing, and had entirely forgot- 
ten the circumstance, when last year (1830) at 
Whitsuntide, I had occasion to go there just as the 
sacrament was being administered in the cathedral 
above. My thoughts were far enough from ghosts — 
on the contrary, I was thinking of the sacrament, 
and the words of the priest, which I could distinguish, 
when, as I was passing from barrel to barrel, as my 
business required, I beheld, with astonishment, a 
female form in a white antique dress, spotted with 
blood, with a veil on her head and a child in her 
arms, coming towards me. She passed me, ascended 
the cellar stairs, and, when half way up, paused as 
if for me. I was in full possession of my senses, and 
I followed her boldly, trying to summon courage to 
speak ; but I could not, and she vanished through 



224 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

the stone wall of the vault. What I felt was not 
so much terror, as amazement, especially at the 
wondrous beauty of the child. I locked the cellar 
door, and immediately afterwards, returning in com- 
pany with my assistants, we searched every part "*of 
the vaults, but could discover nothing. For the 
three following days, though I went to the cellar, I 
saw nothing; but, on the 4th, I saw the spectre 
with the child as before, but, on this occasion, both 
her veil and her robe were black. But now, instead 
of surprise, as at first, I was overcome with horror. 
I hastened above, and it was long before I recovered 
the effects of a terror hitherto quite unknown to me. 
Though I went to the cellar almost daily for a year 
after this, I never saw the figure again." A rela- 
tion of Mr. P., who frequently entered this cellar, 
says, he never saw anything, but he frequently heard 
footsteps near him, or preceding him. 

This is the narrative of an honest, impartial man, 
who is no somnambule, and who never knew the 
Seherin. AVhen any second person saw the spectres 

that appeared to Mrs. H , the unbelievers say 

that their imaginations were infected by her ; but 
what can they say when a man, who never saw her 
nor heard of the circumstance, meets the same figure 
years afterwards in the same place ? They will say 
that, as the contagion of the plague hangs about a 
place for years, so may that of this strange insanity, 
especially in closed up cellars; and others more 
learned will pretend, that the spectre was a nerve- 
projected form, produced by the atmosphere and the 



OCCURRENCES AT WEINSBERG. 225 

particular condition of Mr. P. at the moment; or 
that even the nerve-projected form, which proceeded 
from the Seherin some years before, may have passed 
from her bed into the cellar^ and there be still 
visible to a subtle seer, and they may account for 
the knocking in the same manner; whilst a third 
party will attribute the whole to Mr. P.'s excited 
brain, who had doubtless heard that the cellar was 
haunted by such a spectre^ and who saw it under 
the influence of the new wine which he went there 
to taste. But it must be remembered that Mr. P. 
did not, the first time, believe it to be a spectre that 
he saw, and that he felt neither fear nor horror till 
he saw it a second time. But these are the refuges 
of the wise and understanding, who will believe in 
anything rather than in spectres^ whose existence 
does not conform with the system of nature they 
have established for themselves. 



THIRD FACT. 



In the night of the 20th July 1827, as Mrs. 

H was lying in bed, having just drank some 

water, the door opened and shut, and there entered 
the figure of a man, about thirty years of age, in a 
long open coat, with broad buttons, short hose, rolled 
stockings, shoes with buckles, and a cravat, which 
was fastened by a button, and had two long ends 
hanging down. This is the ancient costume of a 
peasant. He said — " You must come down with 
me to my stable." She asked—'' Where is that ?" 
p 



226 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

and he answered — " Near the surveyor's — a large 
old house." Then he went away and perceptibly 
opened and shut the door. His complexion was 
darkj and there was a clumsiness about him such as 
is derived from a country life, and which it would 
seem, through the nerve-spirit, continues after death. 
On the evening of the 21st, at nine o'clock, there 
was a continual dragging of Mrs. H 's bed- 
clothes, perceptible to others^ as also the sound of 
footsteps, and a noise as of a dog under the table. 
At ten o'clock, the door opened and shut audibly ; 

the peasant returned, looked silently at Mrs. H , 

and then, opening the door, went out. 

On the evening of the 22d_, Mrs. H being 

alone, the peasant-spectre entered by the open door, 
accompanied by the form of a peasant girl. As they 
approached her bed, she turned on the other side, 
in order not to see them, and was attacked by vio- 
lent convulsions. When she recovered, she described 
to me what she had seen, adding that she knew not 
why, but she had great pity of this female ; she was, 
however, so much terrified, that she would not re- 
main alone any more. On the 27th, at two p.m., 

as Mrs. H , who was standing at the window, 

turned round, she saw these two figures standing 
beside her ; and the man said- — " Now, come with 
me immediately to my stable." She answered — 
" For what purpose ? — What is there ? " Whereon 
the female spectre replied—-" We have murdered a 
child, and buried it in the stable, through which I 
afterwards died. He has the blame ; " and, so say- 



OCCURRENCES AT WEINSBERG. 22? 

ing, she pointed to her companion. Mrs. H 



would have asked more, but ibey disappeared. She 
told me that the woman was of an ashy grey ; that 
her head was covered in the same way as all the 
female spectres^, and that she had on a coat and petti- 
coat. The man had a cap on his head^ with a turned 
up brim. On the Isl, they came again about mid- 
day, and stept up to her bed-side ; he sighed heavily, 
and they both looked very sad. On the 3d of 
August, they came at eight in the morning, and 
then, in a firm tone, she forbade them to come to 
her any more. These apparitions occasioned her 
more fear than any others. The girl who attended 
her at that time, a sensible educated person, who 
had not the faculty of ghost-seeing, was always con- 
scious of a strange feeling of anxiety when these 

spectres appeared, although Mrs. H never 

mentioned them to her. 

At two o'clock on the morning of the 3d, these 

figures came again, and Mrs. H took courage to 

ask them about che murder of the child ; then the 
female answered, as if angry — " I took a poison to 
kill the child, of which I was delivered in the stable, 
and which he buried ; and I was found dead in a 
neighbouring barn.'* As they again entreated her 
to go to the stable, she bade them leave her, which 
they did ; but came again on the night of the 6th, 
when the female said — " Look on us, poor lost ones ! 
— Have pity on our sujQferings ! '' To which she 
replied — " Turn to your Redeemer, he alone can 
help you." Whereon they went away. On the 



228 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

next night they appeared^ and the peasant said — 
" You must go below to my stable ; there you must 
dig two paces from the trough, where you will find 
the bones of our child, which you must get buried in 
the church-yard." She, however, bade them seek 
their Redeemer, and pray ; and the same when they 
appeared on the evening of the 8th. 

About mid-night, on the 1 2th, when Mrs. H 

was ill with a bad headach, caused by a high wind, 
and just as the alarm-bell was ringing for a fire in 
the neighbourhood — which, it is to be observed, 
must have turned her thoughts quite in another di- 
rection — these two spectres appeared again, the 
female carrying in her arms a child wrapt in rags, 
the head of which only was uncovered. This was 
only the projected form of the crime, not the real 
child, like the figure seen by Mr. P. at Obersten- 
feld. The peasant said — " I, Nicholas Pfeffer, 
am the seducer of this girl, and the murderer of 
the child, so kneel and pray with us." She said — 
" That I cannot do, having so bad a headach." 
Whereon he answered — " Bind your head cross- 
wise, and make three crosses on it with your middle 
finger." On doing so, the pain left her, and she felt 
only a stunning sensation. They then knelt, the 
woman holding the child in her arms, and she prayed 
with them for an hour. When they had done, the 
man said — " Dig for the child;" and then they dis- 
appeared. She told me that, by their countenances, 
she saw how they were relieved by the prayers. 
They came again on the 13th, and she prayed with 



OCCURRENCES AT WEINSBERG. 229 

them ; and, on the 14th^ they came in company with 
a very dark old man, who^ when they were about 
to speak, stepped before them, and placed his hands 

upon their mouths. Mrs. H became alarmed, 

and was seized with convulsions. On the night of 
the 15th, they came again, the old man standing 
behind while they prayed. She asked who he 
was, and they told her he was the man that had 
furnished the means of killing the child. 

On the night of the 2 1 st, at my desire, Mrs. H 

inquired of the man whether he had lived in the 
surveyors house or another^ and which stable he 
alluded to. He answered, " Not in the surveyor s, 
but in an old house near, with a stable on the right 
hand. We buried the body two paces from the 
trough, where it sinks down." 

To her inquiry of who the old man was, he an- 
swered, " He is an old magician, from a neighbouring 
place. He gave me the herbs I used ; and, in his 
sins, he would now prevent my confessing it." They 
came again on the 17th, when she asked the female 
her name. She sighed, but did not answer; and, to 
her inquiry of when they would return, the man re- 
plied, *' In seven days." 

On the night of the 24th, there slept in Mrs. 

H 's room, with the attendant, a very honest, 

simple-minded, truthful young girl, who certainly 

knew that Mrs. H was frequently visited by 

spectres, but who knew no particulars of their ap- 
pearance ; and still less, that the spectre of a peasant, 
accompanied by a woman, had ever appeared to her. 



230 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

With much amazement, she said to me in the morn- 
ing, before she had spoken to Mrs. H : " I had 

closed [he door^, and we were all in bed. I sleep 
with the maid, whose bed is some paces from that of 

Mrs. H . Aboui. one o'clock, I heard the door 

open and shut, and saw two figures enier, and ap- 
proach Mrs. H '& bed. They looked like human 

beings, but I beard no footsteps. There were the 
forms of a woman and a man. The woman looked 
grey — the man dai'ker. Sbe had a child in her arms, 
that also looked grey. The head and neck of the 
child were bare — the remainder of it wrapt in rags ; 
and the woman's arms were folded jound It. The 
man was of a middling size, somewhat t>igger ihan 
the woman ; and he had on a coat, and short hose. 

They spoke, as also did Mrs. H . 1 heard them 

both ; they had a smaller voice than ordinary beings, 
but spoke distinctly ; though, in the morning, I could 
not clearly remember what they had said. I was 
not frightened, but I could not speak, and could not 
take my eyes from the child. They were a long 
time there : and when thev went awav, the door 
clapt to with a noise." Then she related the history 
of the huntsman's spectre, as it appears in the ac- 
count of it. " These spectres,*' she said, ^' look to 
me like human beings ; only the skin looks rough 
and black, as if sprinkled with grains of sand." 

Mrs. H confirmed the account given by the 

girl ; and when I asked her if the skin appeared as 
she had described, she said, " It appears so to her, 
perhaps ; but it is not skin — it is the cloudy form. 



OCCURRENCES AT WEINSBERG. 231 

A cloud does not look smooth ; and probably she 
sees the spectres darker than I do." She added, that 
she never observed that they threw any shadow ; but 
that, if they stept before the night-light, they inter- 
cepted it. 

These spectres came several times afterwards, but 
their attire was now changed ; they wore bright 
robes, and their forms were brighter also. On the 
14th October, the spectre of the man said, " I shall 
only come to you once more." It was on the 24th 
that they came for the last time ; when they both 
said, as if speaking with one mouth, " We come, for 
the last time, to take leave of you ;" and, on Mrs. 
H inquiring whither they were going, they re- 
plied, " To a better place." They then vanished, and 
she saw them no more. 

The name of Pfeffer, which the spectre gave, is 
not an uncommon one amongst the peasants, a few 
miles from Weinsberg. I should very gladly have 
pursued the search for the bones of the child ; but, 
in the first place, the direction to the stable was not 
very precise ; and, in the next, I feared the owner 
of it, whoever he was, would have considered him- 
self injured, by my setting afloat a report that his 
stable was haunted; and I therefore forbore. In 
the urgent request of the apparitions, we see a rem- 
nant of earthly prejudice. They conjured her to 
have the child buried in consecrated ground, till she 
persuaded them that it was not necessary to their 
salvation. There is much resemblance between this 



232 THE SEERESS OP PREVORST. 

story, and that of Professor Ehrmann of Strasburg, 
related by Eschenmayer ; and which I here give, 
with his permission. 

'^ Some time since, Councillor Lindner of Konigs- 
berg, died at Strasburg, after residing a long time at 
Riga. Amongst his numerous intimate and scientific 
friends, was Mr. Herrenschneider, teacher of the 
Royal Academy in Strasburg, whom Mr. Lindner 
visited shortly before his death. The father of the 
latter was a pastor, in a small village in Pomerania, 
and afterwards in Konigsberg. He kept a journal, 
wherein he set down every thing worthy of note that 
happened to him. This book, which also contained 
matters of business, will be still in possession of his 
family ; and in it, according to the Councillor, the 
pastor, his father, narrates the following story, which 
he, the Councillor, circumstantially related to Mr. 
Herrenschneider, shortly before he died. 

" The pastor, Lindner, slept in a room, which had 
a door of communication into his study, through 
which, as he lay in bed, he could see his desk, on 
which was a large open Bible. Awaking in the 
middle of a moonlight night, he thought he saw a 
minister, in his clerical robes, standing at the desk, 
and turning over the leaves of the Bible. He had 
a child in his arms, and another bigger stood beside 
him ; but the back of the latter was towards him. 
Distrusting his senses, the pastor sat up in bed, 
rubbed his eyes, and asked himself whether he was 



OCCURRENCES AT WEINSBERG. 233 

not dreaming. But feeling convinced he was awake, 
he fixed his eyes on the desk, which he saw distinctly, 
and cried aloud, ' All good spirits praise the Lord 
God ! ' whereon the apparition approached him, and 
ofiered him his hand ; which, however, he did not 
take. Three times the spectre repeated the invita- 
tion, but it was not accepted, and it vanished. The 
features of the spectre sunk deep into the mind of 
the minister ; but, by degrees, the circumstance faded 
from his mind, and he had almost forgotten it, when, 
one day, as he was waiting in the church to perform 
some office, he went into the choir to pass the time, 
by looking at the pictures ; but great was his sur- 
prise, to recognize, in one of them, the features of 
the spectre, in the same dress it had appeared to 
wear. On inquiry, he learned that this portrait was 
the likeness of one of his predecessors, who had in- 
habited the manse forty or fifty years before him. 
There was no one now in the parish, who could give 
any account of this minister, except one very old 
man, who — having been one of his flock — repre- 
sented him as an eloquent preacher ; but added, that 
he was supposed to have an improper intimacy 
with his maid-servant, and to have had by her 
some illegitimate children, whose fate was never 
known. 

" Some time after this, on occasion of some alter- 
ations, a stove in the pastor s study being taken 
down, the mason perceived a hollow place beneath, 
in which were some bones of children. He called 
to the minister to come and see them, who beheld 



234 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

with amazement this evidence of his predecessor s 
crime, and had them removed. Since that time, the 
apparition has never been seen. 

'' Ehrmann, 

" Professor in the Protestant Seminary ofStrashurg" 



There is a similar story concerning the manse at 
Nuttelstadt^ which was sworn to before a magistrate. 
There the animals could not be kept in the stable. 
Female footsteps were constantly heard, and it ap- 
peared as if somebody left the house^ and went to 
the brook hard by to wash. After some time, the 
remains of a new-born child were found in the well. 
They were removed to another place, and the manse 
was no more disturbed. 



FOURTH FACT. 



I had, some years before, heard that the family of 
a poor watchman were much disturbed by spectres, 

but I inquired no further. When Mrs. H came 

here, and the story of Mr. K and the paper 

became known, many people begged me to ask her, 
when she was asleep, how these poor people might 
be relieved from the annoyance. I put the thing 
aside; but, at length, the people came themselves, 
and the woman having related the story to me, I 
consented to do what was requested. She told me, 
that as soon as they went into their present dwelling, 
she saw in the night two women, in antique costume, 
with cotton aprons and folded coifs, come from be- 



OCCURRENCES AT WEINSBERG. 235 

hind her bed. She saw them for a few minutes, and 
then they disappeared. In St. Catherine's nighty 
1823, she and her husband disagreed. " I thought 
on my mother, who was dead, and wished I was 
with her ; and I wept, and prayed that she would 
fetch me. Then there appeared before me something 
tall, and as white as a handkerchief, but without any 
defined form. I thought it was my mother, but it 
vanished without speaking. For four weeks I saw 
nothing more, till the first night of Advent, when I 
prayed against poverty and a large family. Then 
this white figure came, and disappeared, as before. 
On Christmas night of the same year, as I was lying 
awake, I felt something moving about my head, and 
over my breast, like a dog or a cat ; and although 
there was no fire in the stove, the plate looked red- 
hot ; then there was a sharp sound, and all disap- 
peared. By day and night invisible feet are heard 
in my room, and a rustling, as of paper. There 
often shines out of the wall, by night, a lustre, round 
as a plate — remains for some time — and then disap- 
pears behind the wall again. Once, when I was 
quite awake, a figure, as large as the white one, but 
quite black, stood before me, and I thought a hand 
was laid upon my neck ; the sensation was as if a 
hot coal had touched me. In the morning, the place 
was red, and became inflamed, and there remain 
three marks, as of fingers. (These finger-marks, or 
scars, as from burnt fingers, the woman really had 
upon her neck.) On New- Year s night, as I was 
alone in my room, I heard a voice say, ' Sing the 



236 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

hymn, ^' Oh, Jesus, when shall I be free?" and the 
prayer, " Oh, make me a clean heart." ' On Sun- 
day nights, I often hear beautiful voices singing ; 
and there is sometimes a flash of lightning, and 
sometimes lights shining on our floor or ceiling, when 
there is nothing of the sort without, or in the neigh- 
bourhood. When there are dissensions amongst us, 
these appearances cease ; but when we are living in 
peace, and praying nightly, they come again. Last 
Friday night, as I lay awake in bed, the door opened, 
and there entered a man in grey clothes, with folds 
on the back. He passed my bed, and went towards 
the bench, where I saw another man sitting in dark 
clothes, whom I cannot precisely ^escribe. The first 
spoke to the last for some time, hut my spirit was 
too weak to understand what he said; it seemed to 
be a reproof. On this night, I frequently heard a 
knocking and scratching on the bed and bench." 
She added — what is remarkable, namely — that when 
these appearances come her eyelids always close, and 
she sees them mentally. When the apparitions va- 
nish, her lids rise again. Once, when she was in 
her garden, she felt herself directed to a certain 
place ; there she found some groschen,* but she could 
only take away with her two. 

This woman is forty years of age — small — ap- 
pears feeble — and has a very strange look about the 
eyes. She has six little children. The two youngest 
of them are remarkable : the eldest of the two being 

* A small coin. 



OCCURRENCES AT WEINSBERG. 237 

as black as nighty and the other as white as snow ; 
this last has the gift of ghost-seeing also, and the 
spirits often take it from the bed, and seem to kiss it. 
It was some time before I mentioned these cir- 
cumstances to Mrs. H 5 who, when I did, wished 

to see the woman ; whereupon I brought her to her^ 
and she repeated what she had told me. The woman 
became very light and cheerful when with the som- 

nambule ; but Mrs. H avoided her strange eyes, 

which she told me afterwards gave her an uncom- 
fortable sensation. 

On the same evening, when asleep, she said to me, 
" This woman speaks truth ; she sees spirits, and is 
always, unknown to herself, in a half sleep-waking 
state. She must wear an amulet, composed of ^yo 
and seven laurel berries — and they must be so counted 
— and she will see the spectres no more. Were 
there only seven berries, she would sleep ; which 
must not be, for her husband would reproach her." 

On the following day, I took the woman the amu- 
let, and bade her wear it. She told me, that since 

she had been with Mrs. H she felt quite easy ; 

she thought she had left it all behind her there. 

In the morning, Mrs. H and her attendant 

said, they had heard much knocking and rustling 
in the night ; as they did also on the night of the 
12th February. 

On the 1 3th, I went to the woman to inquire the 
ejQTect of the amulet. She told me that, on the first 
night she wore it, an unseen hand tried for a long 
time to tear it oflP ; but she heard no more knocking. 



238 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

But that morning her husband had taken the amulet 
from her, as he hoped to make money by the re- 
demption of the spirits ; and he reproached her with 
having, by means of the amulet, driven them away. 
The man had just quitted the room in anger when I 
arrived ; and the woman confessed to me that she 
also believed chat money was hidden in the house ; 
and, as they had borne with the spirits so long, they 
wished to have the benefit of the treasure, which 
would doubtless be found. As it was impossible to 
get this Idea out of her head, and, as she would not 
wear the amulet, I went to her no more. 

On the night of the 17th, a knocking was heard 

in Mrs. H 's room, and a tall man, of about 

forty years of age, in a white coat, entered and look- 
ed calmly at her ; and she afterwards said, when 
asleep, that he would return on the night of the 1 9th ; 
adding, that she must then take a bit of red coral in 
her hand, which would still the palpitations of her 
heart, and enable her to endure the sight of the 
spectre. 

On this occasion, my wife resolved to take the 
place of her attendant, for the purpose of observing 
her. About ten o'clock the knocking and clapping 
began on the bed-stead, table, and wall, now here, 
now there ; and my wife satisfied herself that it was 
made by neither the sister noi the invalid, on whom 
she kept her eyes fixed, and who was lying quite 
still, with her arms on the coverlet. At one o'clock, 
she took from the table a piece of red coral, which 
had been placed there at her desire, and then, sitting 



OCCURRENCES AT WEINSBERG. 239 

up^ spoke firmly to some one at the foot of the bed. 
She said — '' That I cannot do ;" and more than that 
they could not hear. When my wife asked her 
what was the matter, she inquired if they did not 
see the spectre that was standing at the foot of the 
bed. They said they did not ; but she would not 
tell them what it had said. When I asked her the 
next morning, she told me unwillingly, for she said 
it gave her pain to talk of these spectres. This one 
wore a yellowish white coat, and a girdle like a 
lady's. It said — " See, I come to you that I may 
be wholly redeemed.'' I answered — ^* That I cannot 
do ; your Redeemer alone can do that.** It said — 
'' Oh ! pray for me ! " and bade me open the book at 
a certain hymn, and often read it ; which I promised 
to do. 

When I asked about the eyes of this spectre, she 
said these things were indescribable : the eyes were 
like two light points ; and that a person who saw 
spirits did not see them as they saw human beings. 
She added that, when he turned to go out of the 
door, she saw folds on the back of his coat. 

She frequently read the hymn, as desired ; but, 
on the 21st February, she reproached herself with 
having omitted it, and said she must read it three 
times. She said she should speak again with the 
spectre that night, and that he would come again 
between eleven and twelve ; so I placed a person, 
on whom I could depend, in her sister's bed, for the 
purpose of observing what happened. On the 
following morning this person said to me — " We 



240 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

went to bed about ten, and remained awake till 
eleven, when I fell asleep. About twelve, Mrs. 

H asked for some broth, and I was awakened 

by her sister getting out of the bed to give it her. 
She was scarcely in bed again when we heard a 
strange f crackling and shuffling on the floor ; then 
there was a knocking on the walls, and on Mrs. 

H 's bed, as with hammers. I watched Mrs. 

H all the time. She lay quite quiet,^ with her 

hands on the coverlet ; presently she began to speak, 
but without sitting up. Her conversation seemed 
to be addressed to something near her bed^ which I 
could not see. By and by, she said — ^^ The spectre is 
gone, but will return anon ;" and then we again heard 
the sounds, and she spoke as before. Then I heard 
her say — " Open it yourself;" and I saw, with an 
awe which I had not before felt, the cover of the 
book move, as it lay on her bed, and it was opened 
by an unseen hand. I could not perceive the 

slightest motion on the part of Mrs. H , nor her 

bed. When she said — " God be praised, he is gone," 
we questioned her about the spectre, but she said — 
'^ Leave him in peace," and was silent. 

Mrs. H told me, that, after the noises above 

mentioned, the spectre came to the foot of her bed ; 
and when she asked him why he came to her, he 
said it was to obtain his perfect redemption. I said 
— '' This is a fancy ; why do you not stay with the 
woman who prays for you ? " He said — "^ That 
woman has not so much sense as you, and cannot 
talk to me." 



OCCURRENCES AT WEINSBERG. 241 

M7^s. H ; " Why are you in that poor 

house ? — What were you ?" 

The Spectre : '^ I held a humble situation. In 
that house were two orphans, whom I deceived : I 
defrauded them of their property/' 

Mrs, H : " Why did you do so ?" 

The Spectre : " My best friend, who was very 
rich, seduced me into doing it." 

" Were you not equally rich ?" 

'' No ; but I wished to be so. All that I got dis- 
honestly I shared with my friend. I pretended to 
serve the orphans — but it was only pretence." 

'^ What was your name ? " He did not answer. 
" Why will you not tell it ?" 

" I may not tell my whole name ; one letter in 
it was L." 

^^ Can you make others hear your knocking?" 

"No; but' he who was my friend can; I will 
bring him." 

*^ That will shock me ; T will not see him. Leave 
me, I bid you." 

He replied that he would bring him, for he also 
needed help ; and when I desired him to go, he dis- 
appearedj saying he would return in a few minutes. 
Presently we heard a noise again, and he returned. 
I asked if any of his relations were alive ; he an- 
swered — ^' Yes ; but far from here." 

" My hymn-book lay on the bed," said Mrs. 

H , " and when he bade me open it, as I was 

very weak, I bade him do it, but he disappeared. 
I asked her if she had not seen the book open, but 



242 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

she said slie had not looked at it. When the spectre 
appeared, she felt obliged to speak to it. On the 
following day, having omitted to read the hymn, 
there was much knocking ; whereon she remembered 
it, and took the book; and, while she read it, the 
knocking increased, and with other noises were 
heard, even in the chambers of the lodgers above. 

On the 23d, we observed that she had been much 
alarmed, though we knew not from what cause ; 
and she was seized with spasms. When asleep, she 
said — " Seeing him thus by day, when other people 
are around me, shocks me. That woman (the 
watchman's wife) should be more rational ; she 
prays only for money.*' When I asked her why 
the man, through whose intervention the paper was 
found, did not knock, she said it was because she 
only saw him when asleep ; once only she had seen 
him awake. " Those who knock are those who 
want aid, and are yet far from their Eedeemer, but 
find him on being taught how to seek him. A 
mortal can shew them the way, but cannot redeem 
them. The dark spirit's thoughts are fixed on the 
house in which he lived, and he drags back the white 
one. I am not afraid of the spirits generally, but it 
is hard I am to be persecuted by more of them. 
This dark one will kill me. His words are not sighs, 
like the others, they are groans." By the dark 
spirit she meant the rich friend above alluded to. 

On the night of the 23d, she was awakened by 
the white spirit, who begged her to say over with 
him the ten commandments. She did so, asking 



OCCURRENCES AT WEINSBERG. 243 

him the questions, and he answered. She wept 
when I questioned her in the morning about it, say- 
ing, that he would bring his friend with him every 
night. The appearance of this evil spirit frightened 
her, and made her ill. She remembered well what 
such an one had caused her to suffer for a whole 
year at Oberstenfeld ; and she thought it was a trial 
too great for a mortal. She added that the white 
spirit had told her that his friend had been a higher 
officer than he was. 

On the 24th, she fell into a state of magnetic 
dreaming, quite distinct from her ordinary conditions. 
In this state, she generally remembered what she 
had dreamt, and was quite aware it was a dream. 
She talked aloud to the dark spirit, whom she 
thought was before her ; and she described to me 
afterwards two neighbouring houses in which these 
spirits generally were roaming, even to the number 
of doors, and every particular. In one of these the 
inhabitants were much troubled with inexplicable 
noises, like people going and coming, approaching 
the doors as if about to enter the rooms, sio:hink% 
coughing^ &c. &c. She said it was fortunate the 
spirits could not answer all that was desired of 
them, or they would be more tormented than they 
are already. 

When in a sleep- waking state, she said — '' This 
white spirit will come to me till he has rest, but the 
other ought not to come ; I will pray for him, but 
I cannot bear to see him. And oh! that stupid 
woman, who always prays for money ! She does it 



244 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

for fear of her husband. AYlien asleep, I rejoice to 
live amongst spirits ; but awake^ they make me sad. 
Wonderful ! to see spectres, and talk to them, and 
take pleasure in it ; but it is only the spiritual part 
of me that likes it, not my flesh and blood. Ah ! 
how many do we live amongst whom we do not see." 
She also said — " Happy are the pure in heart; 
and happy are those who see not, and yet believe ! " 

On the 2d of March, the white spirit appeared to 
her twice, with an angry aspect, and told her that 
he had fallen back through his friend. On these 
two occasions she was quite awake. She fled into 
another room, and was immediately attacked by 
convulsions. On the same evening, when I was 
with her, there was a sudden flash of light in the 
room, and she immediately fell back into a magnetic 
dream; then she arose with closed eyes, talked to 
the spectre, opened her book, and sang difierent 
hymns, &c. &c. When she awoke, she said that, 
with that flash of light, the white spirit had ap- 
peared, and told her that the friend had, by derision, 
drawn him back, and she told him how to avoid 
him. On that night he came again, when she was 
in bed, and she asked him the following questions : — 

^' How long were you upon the earth V 

''' Seventy-nine years." 

" At what period did you live ?" 

'^ In 1700." 

" Where did you live ? " 

"- Not far from the small house where the orphans 
were." 



OCCURRENCES AT WEINSBERG. 245 

" Where did the other live?" 

'"^ He lived farther from that house." 

" Did you die before him V 

" He died three years before me." 

'^ Why do you sometimes come to me so gloomy, 
and then again cheerful ? " 

" The dark spirit gets power over me by mockery; 
but now I am firmer." 

" I beseech you to pray for yourself, that you 
may stand firm." 

Then he bade her open the hymn-book, and 
vanished. 

On the 3d March, whilst in cheerful conversation, 
she fell suddenly into violent convulsions, from 
which we had great difficulty in recovering her. 
When we had, she said that the white spirit had 
appeared with the other looking over his shoulder, 
which terrified her ; and that she should never re- 
cover if this persecution continued. I entreated her 
to bid them come no more, and banish them from 
her thoughts ; but she said her word was given to 
the white one, and she must keep it. She observed 
that the spectres seldom came on a Sunday night. 

On the 6th, the spirit told her he felt that he was 
now approaching his Redeemer ; and she prayed 
with him. She then asked him how it happened 
that he was acquainted with hymns which were not 
written till long after his death ? He answered — 
" The vision of spirits is unlimited." 

On the 6th of May, as she was leaving the room, 
she suddenly turned back from the door, and fell 



246 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

asleep. She said she had met the spirit, and she 
repeated this when she awoke. He next appeared 
behind her, when she was looking out of the window 
at a flock of sheep. She felt something pull her 
dress^ and, on looking behind, perceived him so close 
to her that she could not move. He breathed out 
to her — *' Near thee I find repose." She fainted, 
and fell upon the bed. She said — " Were it five 
years hence, I would endure him better, for then he 
will not be as he is now." 

On the night of the 8th, after many noises were 
heard, he came again when she was in bed ; and she 
observed that, before he went away, he leaned over 
her sister and the maid, who were sleeping, and 
said — " May the eye of God watch over ye." On 
the 10th, when he was with her, she stopped her 
ears to try if she could still hear him, whereon he 
said — ^'^ You will still hear me." She added, that 
the spirits often answered her thoughts before she 
had spoken. On the 12 th, after praying, she asked 
him if any of his writing was still extant? He 
said — '' Little of mine, but much of my friend's." 
He also said they had lived in the 16th and 17th 
centuries. 

On the 16th, she asked him, at my request, why 
she never saw him and heard him at the same time^ 
for the noises always preceded the apparitions. 
He said, it was because he made himself visible and 
audible through the air, and could only do one at a 
time. She also inquired why she, and no one else, 
saw him ; and he answered — " Because your sensa- 



OCCURRENCES AT WEINSBERG. 247 

tions are more spiritualized." When lie appeared 
on the 10th, at our desire she asked him to point 
out the house he had lived in, and to make himself, 
or his friend, audible to others. 

On the morning of the 23d, at one o'clock, I sud- 
denly awoke, and heard seven knocks, one after the 
other, at short intervals, seeming to proceed from 
the middle of my chamber ; my wife was awakened 
also ; and we could not compare this knocking to 

any ordinary sound. Mrs. H lived several 

houses distant from us. 

On the 28th, she questioned the spectre about the 
middle -state ; and he said it was a place where those 
went who did not believe in salvation through Christ. 

On the 30th, the R^v. Mr. Herrmann wrote down 
the following questions, and begged her to obtain 
answers from the spectre. They were as follows : — 
" Do you know the mother of our Lord ? — Can her 
prayers in heaven avail us, and have they much 
power? — Is she in closer union with her Son than 
other spirits ? " The spirit appeared at night, whilst 
she was taking her broth, and stood behind the at- 
tendant till she had eaten it, which she did calmly ; 
then he drew near, and she held the paper out to him, 
whereon he spoke as follows, but so slowly, that she 
thought she should never have patience to wait till 
he had finished : — " I know the mother of God 
somewhat better than you : she can pray for me like 
any other blessed spirit. There is no more close 

union between her and our Redeemer; but'* 

and then he paused ; " and when I asked him for 



248 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

an explanation of that hut. he answered — " It has a 
beautiful signification, and is very powerful with the 
blest. More I may not say." 

On the 3d of April she said, when asleep — " Why 
does he come to me ? he might go to God if he 
would ; but he cannot, because he did not do it 
when on earth. We have only one Mediator ; why 
will these unblest spirits apply to any other to help 
them ? Where shall I find this spiritual kingdom ? 
Why do you nod to me ? Let no one defer his re- 
pentance till he comes to this. I would rather be 
here than in that region. They feel their sins more 
acutely than they did here, and the evil ones trouble 
those that are better. A mental trouble is worse 
than a bodily one. All do not come down to those 
lower regions — some are in a happy place. I cannot 
see it, but I feel it through one of the happy spirits. 
There they have all they desire." A person stand- 
ing by said — '^ Have they trees and flowers ? " She 
answered — " Few wish for them. Their desires are 
not like ours ; they wish for higher things." 

On the 6 th of April, Mrs. H quitted her 

lodging, and became my guest. When we entered 
a room, where she had been sitting alone, we found 
her in a sleep-waking state ; and she told us that 
two female forms had appeared to her, and that they 
were the two orphans. When she awoke, she did 
not know who they were. They were brighter than 
the other spectres ; and when she asked them why 
they came to her, they answered — " We come to 
you from joy and gratitude towards God/' The 



OCCURRENCES AT WEINSBERG. 249 

words seemed to proceed from both^ though there 
were not two voices ; and they spoke like the other 
spirits, but not so slow and heavily. She could not 
think why they came, unless to portend her death — 
at which she should rejoice ; although their sudden 
appearance had startled her. 

On the 9th^ the spectre came to her, for the first 
time, to my house, and prayed with her. As he 
came a second time, on the same morning, she in- 
quired the reason, and he told her that he should 
come three times that day to prepare for the cele- 
bration of the approaching fast. He came, however, 
four times ; and, as the last visit was unexpected, it 
startled her, and she fell into a magnetic dream, 
in which it appeared to her that he had come 
again, because the evil spirit, his friend, had been 
seeking to shake his good resolves. I asked her if 
the spirits walked like other mortals. She said they 
moved so, but still not as if they placed one foot be- 
fore the other in the same way. She also said that 
he had told her two more letters of his name — B 
and ^; and that he appeared to her at the age he 
had been when he defrauded the orphans — namely, 
about fifty. 

We ought to have remarked before, that ever 

since the time the Eeverend Mr. H had sent 

those written interrogations which were shewn the 
spectre, he had found himself awakened at a parti- 
cular hour every night, and felt immediately an ear- 
nest disposition to prayer. There was always, at 



V ^ 5 V 



250 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

the same time, a knocking in his room — sometimes 
on the floor^ and sometimes on the walls — which his 
wife heard as well as himself ; but they saw nothing. 
On the 10th April, I wrote a request that the spirit 
would make himself visible to me, which she shewed 
him. He answered, that this had been desired before^ 
but it was not in his power. As, on the 13th, he 
quitted her before the usual time spent in prayer had 
elapsed, she inquired the reason ; when he answered, 
that he must leave her before the hour of the fast 
began, which he was now permitted to celebrate, 
and that he should not come again till it was over. 
Neither did he ; and when he returned, at the end 
of eight days, he looked brighter, and his form was 
less dense. 

On Good Friday, as she lay in the magnetic sleep, 
the door opened and shut in our presence, without 
any human intervention ; and she told us it was the 
dark spirit, who was in trouble on that day. She 
also said, being asleep, that the white spectre was 
in the house of that nerve-spirit who had asked the 

written questions — meaning Mr. H . '^ But 

do not tell him so. He goes to him every night ; 
and this nerve- spirit is thinking of quitting that 

house." Some time after, Mr. H did quit that 

house, and went to Heilbronn. When the spectre 
came next, she asked him where he had held the 
fast; and he said, in the mid-region, with other 
spirits. Having asked him, why he wished her to 
go to the house he had formerly inhabited ; he said, 



OCCURRENCES AT WEINSBERG. 251 

that in that house were two orphans, and that she 
must give them three kreutzers."^ She could not com- 
prehend this desire, but said she must obey it. I 
actually found two orphans in the house named, but 
not so poor as to accept of so small a sum ; we 
therefore deferred giving the money, till I could ex- 
plain the motive. 

On the 1 8th of April, at nine o'clock in the even- 
ing, Mrs. H was in the sleep-waking state ; and 

in the room were her husband, her eldest sister, the 
stipendiaries — Binder, from Stuttgart, and Strauss, 
from Ludwigsburg — ^my wife, and myself. My wife 
being very much fatigued, lay down on the sister s 
bed — the rest of the company were talking on indif- 
ferent matters — and I had my eyes fixed on my wife ; 
when, all at once, close to the bed on which my wife 
lay, we heard a long, fearful groan ; and she started 
up, saying, that somebody had groaned in her ear, 
and that she had felt even the breath of the person. 
(The sensation of this, she felt for weeks afterwards.) 

At that very moment, Mrs. H sat up, and, with 

closed eyes, pointing towards the bed my wife lay 
on, she said, " There he stands ! That was his groan, 
because the kreutzers are not given. He cannot 
knock now any more. Had the woman sought, she 
would have found the money ; I cannot go out to 
seek it in the grass. Reproach me not ; I am not 
subject to you. Oh ! a pious spirit would not speak 
thus ! Come when I am awake, and say then what 

* A coin. 



252 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

you will. I bid you go, and let me rest." She 
afterwards said, that the spirit insisted that the 
money should be paid that day; and that she had 
seen him leaning over my wife, and groaning, be- 
cause it had been committed to her to do it, and she 
had not. This was true ; as she waited till I could 
explain the motive of the gift. She said, that she 
would ask the white spirit to procure that his dark 
friend should make himself visible in some house, 
when the thing was possible ; adding — " But I say, 
happy are those who see not, and yet believe." 

We then retired to our chamber, above stairs; 
and, as Ave were fatigued, our friends gone, and our 
children long asleep, we went to bed immediately, 
and fell asleep also, without saying a word more of 
what had happened below. At twelve o'clock, a 
child of five years old, who slept in the same room 
with us, suddenly screamed out, and sprang from its 
own bed into its mother's, crying, " Wake, wake ! 
Here's a black man, who wants to kiss me, or bite 
me." She hugged her mother, who tried to comfort 
her, as she screamed with terror ; but neither I nor 
my wife saw any thing. We have observed before, 
that the dark spirit often took that woman's child 
from its bed, and kissed it. The expression of the 
child, that he wanted to kiss her or bite her, accorded 

exactly with Mrs. H 's description of him — 

that he had a black head, with projecting teeth. 

On the evening of the 19th — Mrs. H being 

in bed, and I writing at a table near her — I suddenly 
heard a noise, like the rustling of paper, on the com- 



OCCURRENCES AT WEINSBERG. 253 

mode behind me, where there was nothing of that 
sort. I rose instantly, to examine the cause^ but 

could find none whatever; and Mrs. H 's bed 

was at a considerable distance from the spot. On 
asking her the reason afterwards, when she was sleep- 
waking, she said, " That I dare not yet tell you." 
The same thing happened, when I was with her the 
next day ; but the rustling, &c. was on the table, 
instead of the commode ; and when I asked her the 
reason, she made me the same answer. As the spirit 
now came at all hours, she asked him, why he did 
so ; and he said, " It is because he whom you call 
the dark one leaves me no rest ; he seeks rest through 
me." On the 21st, in the morning — her window 
being open — gravel was thrown in, which I myself, 
saw, and picked up ; although there was no one seen 
who could throw it. It was such gravel as lay in 
front of the house. Other sounds were heard in the 
room, equally unaccountable ; and later, when she 
was alone, a stool, that stood before the writing- 
table, was raised up to the ceiling by some invisible 
power, and then slowly descended. In the evening, 
we being in the garden, and nobody in the house 
but herself and the maid, they both heard a sound 
of running overhead, and called me. I hastened up, 
and could find nothing ; but I heard feet treading 
after me, all through the rooms, and back to the 
stairs. When I asked her an explanation of these 
things, in her sleep, she sighed, and said, " It is all 
the dark spectre, but I will have nothing to say to 
him." I begged her to send him to me; but she 



254 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

said, ^' That is not in my power ; I have asked the 
white spectre to do it, but it must be according to 
the will of the Lord." When my wife and I were 
in bed, on the 11th, we were awakened by a soft 
knocking on the two windows, which were on quite 
opposite sides of the room. On the 22^^ gravel was 
again flung into the room, and also at the maid, when 
she was outside the house, but she could see no one 
near ; and my house stands very much exposed. 
At mid-day, Mrs. H having gone into the court- 
yard, she returned alarmed, and fell into the half- 
waking state. She said she had been met by a strange 
animal, as large as a dog, with a long snout and roll- 
ing eyes ; she cried to it, '' Go hence ! all good 
spirits praise the Lord !" whereon it vanished. 
Afterwards, in her room, this apparition returned, 
in a form resembling a bear. When asleep, she said, 
" Now I see how black his soul must be, when he 
comes in such frightful shapes ; but I must see him, 
because now he cannot go to the other, who is almost 
in bliss." 

On the 23d of April, as we were sitting in the 
upper story, by candle-light, a white cloudy form, 
seen by us all, floated past the window, and imme- 
diately we heard sounds, as on preceding occasions. 
At night, at 11, when we were all in bed, Mrs. 

H 's sister burst into the room, saying, they had 

heard a noise of chains at the window ; and, on 
looking that way, had twice seen a dark face looking 
in. I searched, but found nobody, and shut the 
shutters. On the 25th, when I and the sister were 



OCCURRENCES AT WEINSBERG. 255 

in the room, small ashes were flung, not in at the 
window, but from a corner; the door of the room 
was shut, and my wife was looking from an upper 
window at the moment, and saw nobody. 

On the 7th day, as he had fixed, the white spirit 
returned ; and he now said, the kreutzers must be 
given on that day; I therefore proceeded to deliver 
them myself. I found the orphans were, on that very 
day, about to quit the house, which was their pro- 
perty, and in which their parents had lived. They 
were, consequently, much depressed ; but they told 
me, that both they and their parents had often seen 
a white form, like a cloud, as well as heard various 
unaccountable sounds about the house — sighing, 
groaning, and coughing. Their father believed the 
house was haunted, but not by an evil spirit. 

When next the white spirit came, he expressed 
his satisfaction that the money had been given. It 
appeared that some idea of expiation was attached 
to this act. 

The white spirit now returned, in a much brighter 
form ; he said that his name had been Belon, and 
that now it was Jamua. " I used to write, Bellon," 
he said; " but my proper name was Belon." He 
added, that now he could go to his Redeemer, and 
divest himself of all earthly thoughts. 

As I now knew his name, I made every inquiry 
about him, but could hear of no such person ; till at 
length the Mayor Pfaff", after some researches, found, 
that in the year 1700, there lived a burgomaster, 
and guardian of orphans, of that name ; and that he 



250 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

must have died in 1740^ as the division of his pro- 
perty took place in that year. In the register of 
deaths for 1740, I accordingly found his name, with 
his age, 79 years. We also found a deed, wherein 
was a complaint against this man, from a family long 
since extinct. It contained facts regarding his ava- 
rice, &c. ; and proved that he had lived in the house 
he had designated. 

On the 27th, an animal, like a monstrous scorpion^ 
came out of the corner of the room ; she bade it go, 
in the name of Jesus, and it vanished. Afterwards, 
when I was sitting with her whilst she slept, there 
was a sound, as of sand or ashes thrown from a cor- 
ner; but I could not see them. I called up my 
people ; and when I returned, she — being sleep- 
waking — said, ^^ Had you remained, and called no- 
body, you would have heard more." 

On the 80th, at the desire of a friend, she shewed 
the white spectre a paper, on which was written, " If 
you be a good spirit, tell us how we must live, to 
escape going into the middle state after death ? " He 
answered, " Yea, through my Mediator and Re- 
deemer, I am now good and happy. Who desires 
the highest happiness, must trust wholly to the Gos- 
pel, and the teaching of Jesus." 

At midnight, on the 3d of May, the white spirit 
suddenly waked Mrs. H — — , and bade her look 
to her sister ; for that the dark spirit would come 
for four nights, and stand beside her bed ; and as she 
would see him, it might frighten her to death. He 
said, somebody must stay with her. Mrs. H lay 



OCCURRENCES AT WEINSBERG. 257 

still, and watched ; and presently she saw the dark 
spirit, like a pillar, beside her sister s bed. When he 
had been there about two minutes, the sister awoke 

in great terror. Mrs. H bade her get up, and 

call somebody ; but the figure being still there, tho 
girl said, she dare not move on any account. After- 
wards, when it moved away, she arose ; and, coming 
to us, said, that her sister begged some one would 
come and stay in the room. We sent the maid, who 
slept with her ; but, during the whole of the night 
afterwards, there were inexplicable noises in every 
part of the house, heard by us all. On the follow- 
ing morning, Mrs. H told us what had hap- 
pened, and her sister then first heard an explanation 
of her own sensations. She said, she had awaked in 
great horror, and, without knowing why, had found 
it impossible to get out of bed ; but she saw no ghost, 
nor had thought of any. She complained all day of 
a pain in that side next which the spectre had stood. 
At mid-day, there were such noises in the room I 
was in, that the people from above came down to 
inquire the cause. 

At night, we wished the maid to sleep in the room 
again, but she would not ; but after the sister was in 

bed, Mrs. H- arose in her sleep, and, with closed 

eyes, put on her dressing-gown, handkerchief, and 
stockings, and laying herself at the foot of her sister s 
bed, took hold of her hand, and held it fast. After 
some time, she awoke, surprised to find herself there ; 
and immediately returned to her own bed. She said, 



258 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

in the morning, that the white spirit had bade her 
take care of her sister ; and that, while &he lay there, 
he had knelt beside her, and the black one had stood 
at a distance. On the following night, we sent the 
sister to sleep at a friend's house, and we procured 
another attendant. The next day, when my wife 
was in the cellar, there was such a knocking, on the 
barrels and vessels, that she called me down, but we 

could find nothing ; and at night, in Mrs. H 's 

room, though doors and window-shutters were closed, 
there was a great deal of throwing, &c. &c. The 
white spirit was now so thin and vapoury, that she 
could scarcely see him ; he told her he should only 
come twice more, as it was now more difficult for 
him to do so. He confided to her many things> 
which she would not tell us : one was, that there are 
eight beatitudes. The noises continued daily. On 
the 1 7th, being asleep, she said, " Oh ! what joy ! — 
what delight ! T was never so happy before. Mor- 
tal man cannot imagine it. How may pious souls 
rejoice at what awaits them ! Here we think music 
and flowers beautiful ; but what are these to heavenly 
music and flowers ? But what do they sufier who 
are in the middle-state so long, and cannot reach 
these delights ? " When she awoke, she said, we all 
looked so thick and heavy, she could not imagine 
how w^e could move. 

With respect to our pressing her to ask questions 
of the spirits, in order that we might be convinced 
they were not the ofi'spring of her own imagination. 



OCCURRENCES AT WEINSBERG. 259 

she said, it was indifferent to her, whether people 
believed in them or not ; and that the more she 
questioned them, the more she was brought into 
relation with them^ instead of being delivered from 
them. 

On the night of the 31st, my wife suddenly awoke 
in great fear, and sat up in bed. Immediately after- 
wards we heard the sister's voice, calling out of the 
window from below, to us above, that there was 
somebody at the house-door that led into the yard. 
I jumped out of bed, and running to the window, 
I heard somebody trying to open the door ; but could 
see nothing, although it was moonlight. I called out, 
but there was no answer ; and immediately there 
was a noise from the roof, as if somebody was throw- 
ing down gravel. I then fired out of the window, 
but all was silent, and nothing stirred. 

On the 29 th, the white spirit came, accompanied 
by a bright female figure ; they all sang a hymn, 

which Mrs. H certainly did not know before ; 

then he thanked her for her prayers, and they de- 
parted through the door, Mrs. H said, she 

longed earnestly to go with them. The white spirit 
had previously promised her, that the dark one 
would come to her no more. 



In August, there came to me a woman from Le- 

nach, by name L S , desiring to speak to 

Mrs. H , on the subject of some extraordinary 

annoyances with which she had been troubled for 
several years. She had been told that Mrs. H 



260 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

saw apparitions, but had heard no particulars what- 
ever. 

She said, " In the house I lived in, I heard sounds 
by night, like rolling of balls,, groaning, and weep- 
ing ; and sometimes a weight seemed to fall upon 
me ; and something unseen would approach me, so 
near, that I actually felt its breath. All this made 
me so ill, that I left the house." I asked her, in 
what house this had happened ; and great was my 
surprise, to hear it was in Bellon's. '^ When I went 
home to Lenach," she said, ^' I heard nothing ; but 
afterwards going to service at Neustadt, I found 
myself tormented as before ; and, in addition, I often 
saw a white apparition standing by my bedside. I 
fell ill, and returned home again ; and there I was 
persecuted by a frequent sound of moaning, which 
my mother heard as well as I, and which troubled 
us for two years. I often heard things thrown after 
me, but could never find any thing ; and also a sort 
of imperfect speaking, as if people were trying to 
speak, and could not. On waking suddenly, I 
sometimes saw the white apparition standing by my 
bed." The mother of this woman (who was married, 
and had children) confirmed all she said ; adding, 
that the sounds were heard by her husband, who had 
also seen a dark figure. 

I arranged that this woman — the daughter — 

should sleep a night in Mrs. H 's room, in order 

to ascertain if she saw the apparitions that came to 

Mrs. H . She did not, but she heard them ; and the 

consequence to us was, that the dark spirit, who had 



OCCURRENCES AT WEINSBERG. 261 

not lately been seen, returned, and troubled us for 
some time. These circumstances will be alluded to 
again. 

Some time afterwards, I saw this woman on her 
deathbed, when she assured me, that all she had told 
us was true ; and added, that the dark spirit had, 
seven days before, informed her and her husband of 
their approaching death by a sign, which, as she was 
then dying, she could not explain to me. She and 
her husband died within a few days of each other. 



FIFTH FACT. 



On the 6th July 1827, Mrs. H went to walk 

in the avenue, near my house, which leads to the 
town ; but she returned hastily, after a few steps, 
saying, she could not go any further. I did not 
learn the reason till the 1 4th, when she told me, she 
had seen a man whom she recognized to be a spectre ; 
and that he had visited her frequently by night since, 
begging her to go to the castle with him, where there 
was a large and a small cellar, into which she must 
go ; and when she refused, he told her, that he must 
continue to come to her till she did what he required. 
She described him as having a good and friendly 
aspect, and said that he excited no alarm. He 
looked about seventy years of age — had a long beard, 
an old-fashioned coat and hat, such as the Tyrolese 
now wear, and half-boots — and his speech was more 
easy and rapid than that of the other spirits. In 
answer to her questions, he said he had lived in 1520 



262 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

—that he was in a state of bliss— but that something 
prevented his further advance ; and he besought her 
to take resolution, and go with him. She said, that 
no spirit she had seen was so pleasing to her as this 
one. On the 21st, she asked him, with what the 
spirits employed themselves in the place he was in. 
He said, *-' I am where the heathens are^ and those 
upright men who had no opportunity of knowing 
their Saviour ; and we are there instructed by the 
angels^ till W€ are fit for a higher place." He added, 
that there were eight beatitudes — but, as yet, only 
seven, as the eighth had not begun ; and that that 
was what was meant by the kingdom of 1000 years. 
On the 20th, she told him, that she could not go 
with him to the castle, unless he told her his name. 
He said, that she must not know till they were 
there. About this time, another form, less bright 
than this, appeared sometimes : the dress was mili- 
tary — the age about forty — and his appearance was 
accompanied with a jingling sound, like that of spurs; 

* and one day, as the Reverend Mr. H and I 

were reading with her, he suddenly stopped, saying, 
something had touched his foot ; and she told me 
afterwards, that this military apparition had at that 
time been close to him. It walked up and down the 
room — looked calmly at her — but said nothing. Mr. 
H was frequently conscious of the neighbour- 
hood of spirits, ever since he had been brought into 
relation with them by means of those written inter- 
rogations. Presently afterwards, as Mrs. H 

lay on her bed asleep, in her clothes — and with her 



OCCURRENCES AT WEINSBERG. 263 

boots on, which were fastened on her feet by hooks 
— I entered the room, and was looking at her, when 
the boots were taken off her feet by an unseen hand 
— carried through the air, to where her sister was 
standing at the window — and set down beside her. 

Mrs. H lay perfectly still the whole time, and 

knew nothing of it when I awoke her ; her sister 
wept, and did not like to touch the boots again. 
When this spectre came, the night-light was always 
extinguished, and once she saw him extinguish it 
himself. 

On the 2 2d, this spectre spoke for the first time, 
and told her, in a mocking tone, that he was the 
huntsman of him who wanted her to go to the castle. 
Shortly afterwards, when her sister and my daughter 
were in the room, a screen that lay on the table was 
flung off it, to the other side of the room. Mrs. 

H , who was in bed, had just before seen the 

huntsman enter by the door. On the 10th, he en- 
tered hastily, and flung all the papers from the table 
to the ground. AYhen she asked him what he wanted, 
he said, that he wished to prevent the other spirit 
having rest yet. On the evening of the 24th, this 
spectre returned, bringing with him a tall, thin, 
elderly woman, whose form was dark, and counte- 
nance disagreeable. She aippeared in antiquated 
fashion, with a high cap, and under it a sort of veil, 
such as was worn by all the female spectres ; her 
dress was thick, and very full, and her shoes were 
pointed. They walked backwards and forwards in 
the room, and looked at Mrs. H , but said no- 



264 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

thing. When she inquired of the other spirit the 
cause of these two coming, he told her, it was to 
prevent her doing what he wished ; for that, when 
alive, this huntsman had hated him, and had taken 
his hatred with him when he died. The cause of 
the hatred was, that he had discharged him from his 
service, &c. &c. 

Mrs. H had frequently told me, that she had 

dreamt there was something in our cistern in the 
kitchen — where she never had been — that should not 
be there. It being now emptied, a very ancient, 
long, thick, and rusty knitting-needle was found at 

the bottom of it. I took it into Mrs. H 's room, 

and left it on the table there. After some days, 
though nobody had touched it, this needle was found 
in the kitchen, on an upper story. I took it back 
again to the lower floor, and laid it on the table ; 
shortly afterwards, the huntsman and his companion 
appeared, and Mrs. H— saw the needle lifted 
from the table — which was six paces from her — and 
carried through the air towards her. She screamed, 
for some one to come to her aid ; and the needle, in- 
stead of proceeding as far as where she lay, placed 
itself in a glass of water, where I found it, when I 
ran into the room, on hearing her voice. 

On the evening of the 29th, Mrs. H being 

alone, and my servant and another person sitting in 
the adjoining chamber, but close to the door, the 
huntsman and the woman returned, walking up and 
down the room as usual, and ever and anon stopping 
to look at her — though he said nothing but " Yes>, 



OCCURRENCES AT WEINSBERG. 265 

yes, yes ! " in a mocking tone, and the woman looked 
at her with a similar expression ; whereupon she 
was attacked by spasms. At the same time, the two 
persons in the next room heard the most extraordin- 
ary noises — a ringing of spurs, and a sound, as if 
all the chairs were being flung violently to the ground 
— and wondering whence this could proceed, know- 
ing Mrs. H to be in bed, they rushed into the 

room ; when a stool was thrown at them, from the 
opposite side of the room to where the bed stood, on 

which, at the same time, they saw Mrs. H lying 

insensible. When she awoke, she said she had seen 
the spectres ; but knew nothing of the uproar, hav- 
ing been insensible. At night, when asleep, she 
said, she had heard the noise in her insensible state, 
because she is then always magnetic ; but that awake 
she knew nothing of it. At night, on the 1st August, 
the good spirit came to her ; but the evil ones came 
also, and stepped before him, when he disappeared. 
The huntsman threatened to trouble her continually, 
but she defied him in the name of God. On the 7th, 
they came, bringing with them a very dark spirit, 

of a short thick figure, which alarmed Mrs. H 

very much. These continued to return frequently ; 
and the good spirit now, when he came, brought 
with him a small sheet of paper, on which she dis- 
cerned large letters, intermingled with small red 
ones. He said, " This is what hinders me." As 
she could not well i*ead it by night, she bade him 
bring it by day. On the 31st, I gave her a paper, 
closely folded and sealed, on which was written, 



266 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

*^ Jesus bears our sins — tell this joyful word to all;" 
and I bade her offer it to the first spectre that came, 
and ask him the contents. She did so ; and the 
huntsman, without touching it, said, " Jesus ! — sins ! 
What is all that to me ? — I shall never be happy." 
She said, " Can you ever hope, being so wicked, to 
see God ? " He answered, " Hum ! — I never shall." 
She then adjured him to go ; and in the morning, 
she returned the paper sealed, as I had given it her. 

At night, the huntsman returned alone, and gently, 
but half jestingly, asked her to tell him how to pray. 

" Are you in earnest ? — Would you pray V* 

^' I would." 

'' Why so?" 

'^ That I may become happier." 

" Do you believe that you can become happy 
through prayer ? " 

" Yes, I believe it now." 

" Then trust in your Redeemer." 

He than vanished. When he next returned, she 
prayed with him again ; but she told him that she 
would not do it any more if he brought that dark 
spirit with him, who, part of the time, made such a 
noise that the servant heard it. She told me that it 
appeared to her, that the prayers and pious words 
she uttered were diffused over the spirits, and made 
them brighter; but she felt weakened by them. 
When the huntsman next came, she asked him why 
the good spirit came so seldom. 

He answered-^" It is my fault ; he cannot come 



OCCURRENCES AT WEINSBERG. 267 

when he would ; it is much more difficult for him to 
come than me/' 

^^ If I were to go to the castle, as he wishes, can 
you tell me where the place he speaks of is V 

" I could, but this black spirit will not let me." 
Immediately the black spectre stood before her. 

'*• It is said, you shall call on your Lord and 
Saviour, and drive this black spirit from you." 

'^ I will ; but tell me how." 

" By continually beseeching your Redeemer to 
pardon your sins." On the 12th, she asked him 
why he was in the middle-region. 

" For my sins. Teach me to pray." 

" How are you bound to that good spirit ? " 

^^ As by a chain, which has raised an inextinguish- 
able hatred in him. I was his inferior, and I made 
a present of a chain to his lady. He would not let 
her wear it — took it and threw it into a vault. He 
promised to help me to a better situation, but never 
did it. I and a female servant took a great hatred 
to him : we robbed him, and did him all the harm 
we could. I will tell you all about it; but now 
pray with me — say the Lord's Prayer." 

On the night of the 13th, I placed the woman 
from Lenach, above alluded to, in the room with Mrs. 

H , and she told me in the morning she had 

heard noises, and that then Mrs. H awoke and 

spoke with some unseen person ; the first word she 

heard was — "Why?" Mrs. H related the 

following conversation : — 

" I cannot pray a word but what you teach me " 



268 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

^^ Why?" 

" Because nobody teaches us ; we must find it 
out by ourselves." 

" Who calls on the Lord, him will he hear. He 
will strengthen you, if you ask him," &c. &c. She 
said the spectre drew in these words as a child does 
something that excites his interest. He pressed her 
to say more^ but she was exhausted, and could not. On 
the 16 th after various noises, there came a tall dark 

spirit Mrs. H had never seen. On the 17th, I and 

my wife heard noises close to our chamber, but I could 
find nobody. On the 21st, the huntsman came, with 
the female and the short dark spectre; the latter 
was very restless, as he always was ; and the woman 

mockingly bade the huntsman not mind Mrs. H , 

but listen to her. He entreated her to let this 
woman be brought to speak the name of Jesus. On 
the 1 2th, there were noises in our room, and a table 
was flung down without anybody touching it ; and I 
felt, at the sametime, an indescribable sensation on 
my left arm. On the 23d, the tall dark spirit ap- 
peared again for the last time, but said nothing. 

Mrs. H thought he came on account of the 

woman from Lenach. On the 24th, Mrs. H 

removed into the next house, where presently the 
huntsman appeared in the next room to that she was 
in, and beckoned to her. He told her he should 
find her wherever she was ; but that he must not 
speak to her, as it would injure her health. On the 
night of her removal, I placed a very good honest 
girl to sleep in her room, and she related to me that. 



OCCURRENCES AT WEINSBERG. 2G9 

in the night, the door had opened, and she had seen 
a tall dark spectre moving about the room. This is 
the same girl mentioned in the history of the third 
apparition. On the 27th, the female spectre came 
alone, and said, mockingly, she should prevent the 
huntsman coming. He came, however, and said, 
when she asked him the reason of this — ^' Oh ! 
God ! it is because, when alive, I was too closely 
connected with her ! " He, however, wished her 
also to be saved. 

Mrs. H asked him if he could not take any 

other form than that he had as a man. He answer- 
ed — '^ Had I lived as a brute, I should so appear to 
you. We cannot take what forms we will : as our 
dispositions are, so we appear to you." As at that 
moment she heard a sound of music from a neigh- 
bouring house, she asked him if there was music 
where he was. He said — '' No ; but sometimes we 
hear that of the happy spirits, and that pains us." 

" Do you hear earthly music V 

" Now, when I am with you, I hear it through 
you; not otherwise. We have no part in ^^hat 
happens on earth." 

As the woman and the short dark spirit still ac- 
companied him, but stood at a distance, she asked 
him who the latter was. He answered — " He is 
one of those who can never be happy." On the 1st 
of October, the dark spirit threatened her, and ap- 
peared so terrible, that she became extremely ill ; 
and, on the 2d, the female mockingly invited her to 
go to the castle with her. These two spectres con- 



270 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

tinued to threaten and trouble her much ; the black 
one was so heavy, that his steps were audible. The 
huntsman bade her not listen to them. On the 9th, 
Mrs. H told me that a bright form had appear- 
ed to her in white garments, and its head surrounded 
by a glory of light. What it said she was not per- 
mitted to tell me. She confessed that she had been 
visited by this form once before, when it had said — 
" I am one of those who are sent to serve such as are 
to inherit eternal happiness." This spirit did not 
walk on the ground like the others^ but floated ; the 
others, compared to it, seemed as heavy as lead. It 
was like a light cloud through which the sun shone. 
At night, when the huntsman came, this spirit re- 
turned, and spoke to him consolingly. She said this 
bright spirit strengthened her as much as the others 
weakened her. She knew who it had been when on 
earth, but would not say. This spirit told her that 
he had also been in the mid-region, but for a short 
time, and not on so low a degree as the other spectres. 
I afterwards learned that this bright form was that 
of the deceased minister, T., of Oberstenfeld, men- 
tioned in the early part of this work, on whose 
grave she had stood. He was a most worthy ex- 
cellent man. 

The 19th October had now arrived — the period at 
which, as we have described, she seemed to awake 
out of her precarious condition, and was found to 
have lost all recollection of what had occurred for 
an interval of several months. On this morning she 
related to me how she had been alarmed in the night 



OCCURRENCES AT WEINSBERG. 271 

by a spectre in a short frock and boots, who had 
begged her to comfort him ; and, when she asked 
him what he required of her, he said — " That I have 
often told you." Then came a bright white form of 
one she had known when alive ; and, on asking 
why it came to her, having long been dead, it 
answered — " I come to give you strength ; calm 
yourself/' When the spirits visited her now, she 
remembered none of them. We told her their 
histories, as she had told them to us. She expressed 
great surprise at the short dark spirit ; and said that, 
though these seemed like lead compared to the 
bright form, yet they were very light compared to 
us. ^^ How heavy we must be ! " When the female 
spectre threatened her, she bade it come to me ; and, 
on the same night, (2d November,) both I and my 
wife were much disturbed by noises in our room, 
and something was thrown at me. In the morning, 

I learnt what Mrs. H had said to the spirit. 

On the 9th, when the huntsman and the bright spirit 
appeared together, the Lowenstein girl, who slept 
in the room, saw the huntsman, but not the other. 

Mrs. H said it could only be seen with the 

spiritual eye, which lies within the fleshly one. On 
the 15th, Mrs. H — — 's child, who was then three 
years old, slept in the ante-room through which the 
huntsman passed, whereon it began to scream ; and, 
pointing to the door, gave us to understand that it 
had seen something frightful. 

Some time before she awoke, she told us that the 
good spirit would not return till she was able to go 



272 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

to the castle ; the huntsman had told her so. Now, 
on the 20th, the bright form said he would come on 
the following morning — which he did, and told her 
that, if she could not go to the castle till the 15th of 
February, he would come again. She described him 
just as she had done in her former condition. On 
the 15th, he appeared in company with the hunts- 
man ; he told her he should not come again till she 
was able to go with him ; and the huntsman said he 
was now going to a better place, and should trouble 
her no more. 

She continued too weak to go to the castle, and 
they never appeared again. 



Shortly after the history of this good spirit, who 

wished Mrs. H to go to the castle, became 

known, a person, engaged in a public office here, 
came to me — it was on the 9th August, 1827 — and 
related to me the following circumstances : — 

Ten years ago, when I lived in the nearest court to 
this, I was disturbed, day and night, by something 
invisible opening and shutting the doors, and running 
up and down the steps ; even my children were well 
acquainted with these sounds, and we were quite 
accustomed to them; but we never saw anything. 
As I was appointed to a situation here, I took a 
small house on the city wall, which lies on the road 
to the castle. Here we continued to hear the steps ; 
but, in a short time, the hitherto invisible became 
visible. One night I saw, standing at the foot of my 
bed, the form of a man, apparently about sixty years 



OCCURRENCES AT WEINSBERG. 273 

^id ; he had on a round hat, grey clothes, and boots 
with spurs, and seemed to be a person of condition. 
He said to me, speaking with difficulty — ' Come 
with me to the castle/ I could not answer him. 
From that time this spirit went about my house by 
day and night, and often spoke to me. I learned 
that he was in trouble about something that he had 
hidden in a vault, the entrance to which is at the 
foot of the wall; and that he was in some way 
bound to somebody hy an oath. Once he appeared 
to me by day, saying — ' Come with me to the castle 
at ten o'clock to-night/ I promised him ; and, at 
the appointed time, I set out. When I reached the 
small gate, I espied somebody coming towards me 
from the Round Tower. I took this for a living 
person ; and, afraid of being questioned as to what I 
was doing there at so late an hour, I turned back. 
The person turned also towards the prison, and I 
then perceived it was the spectre, and that he was 
followed by an ill-formed dark figure, whom he 
seemed to avoid. He uttered a groan that went to 
my heart ,* but I had not resolution to fulfil my first 
intention. Since then, I have never either heard or 
seen anything of the sort in my house." 

This is the relation of a very simple honest man ; 
and its connexion with the former story cannot be 

overlooked. Mrs. H had never heard of this 

man nor of his adventure. 



If many things in the above relations appear in- 
credible, what we are now about to mention will 



274 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

appear much more so ; and those who find it impos- 
sible to believe what occurred to Mrs. H , will 

reject, with still more disgust, the following story. 
But those who have read in a different spirit, and 
are prepared to believe in the existence of a world 
of spirits amongst us, will not fail to remark the 
singular coincidences in those stories, especially with 
respect to the modes taken by the spirits to draw the 
attention of mortals, these differing not in kind, but 
in degree. The persons to whom these circumstances 
occurred were in perfect health, and had nothing 
whatever to do with magnetism or sleep- wakers. 
Councillor Hahn of Ingelfingen, wrote down this 
account in the Castle of Slawensick, in Silesia^- 
which has since been destroyed by lightning — in the 
year 1808, being himself an eye-witness to the 
facts ; and he communicated them to me in the year 
1828:— 

" After the campaign of the Prussians against the 
French in 1806, the reigning Prince of Hohenlohe 
gave orders to Councillor Hahn, who was in his 
service, to proceed to Slawensick, and there to awaifc 
his return. His Serene Highness advanced from 
Liegnitz towards his principality, and Halm also 
commenced his journey, towards Upper Silesia, on 
the 1 9th November. At the same period, Charles 
Kern, of Kiinzelsau, who had fallen into the hands 
of the French, being released on parole, and arriving 
at Liegnitz in a helpless condition, he was allowed 
to spend some time with Hahn, whilst awaiting his 



OCCURRENCES AT WETNSBERG. 275 

exchange. ' Hahn and Kern had been friends in 
their youth, and their destinies having brought them 
both at this time into the Prussian States, they were 
lodged together in the same apartment of the castle, 
which was one on the first floor, forming an angle at 
the back of the building, one side looking towards 
the norths and the other to the east. On the 
right of the door of this room was a glass-door, 
which led into a chamber divided from those which 
followed by a wainscot partition. The door in this 
wainscotj which communicated to these adjoining 
rooms, was entirely closed up, because in them all 
sorts of household utensils were kept. Neither in 
this chamber, nor in the sitting-room which pre- 
ceded it, was there any opening whatever which 
could furnish the means of communication from 
without ; nor was there anybody in the castle be- 
sides the two friends, except the Prince's two coach- 
men, and Hahn's servant. The whole party were 
fearless people ; and, as for Hahn and Kern, they 
believed in n9thing less than ghosts or witches, nor 
had any previous experience induced them to turn 
their thoughts in that direction. Hahn, during his 
collegiate life, had been much given to philosophy — 
had listened to Fichte, and earnestly studied the 
writings of Kant. The result of his reflections was 
a pure materialism ; and he looked upon created 
man, not as an aim, but merely as a means to a yet 
undeveloped end. These opinions he has since 
changed, like many others who think very difier- 
ently in their 40th year to what they did in their 



276 THE SEERESS OP PREVORST. 

20th. The particulars here given are necessary, iki 
order to obtain credence for the following extraordin- 
ary narrative ; and to establish the fact, that the 
phenomena were not merely accepted by ignorant 
superstition, but coolly and courageously investigated 
by enlightened minds. During the first days of 
their residence in the castle, the two friends, living 
together in solitude, amused their long evenings with 
the works of Schiller, of whom they were both great 
admirers; and Hahn usually read aloud. Three 
days had thus passed quietly away, when, as they 
were sitting at the table, which stood in the middle 
of the room, about nine o'clock in the evening, their 
reading was interrupted by a small shower of lime, 
which fell around them. They looked at the ceiling, 
concluding it must have come thence, but could per- 
ceive no abraded parts ; and, whilst they were yet 
seeking to ascertain whence the lime had proceeded, 
there suddenly fell several larger pieces, which were 
quite cold, and appeared as if they had belonged to 
the external wall. At length, concluding the lime 
must have fallen from some part of the wall, and 
giving up farther inquiry, they went to bed, and 
slept quietly till morning, when, on awaking, they 
were somewhat surprised at the quantity which 
strewed the floor, more especially as they could still 
discover no part of the walls or ceiling from which 
it could have fallen. But they thought no more of 
the matter till evening, when, instead of the lime 
falling, as before, it was thrown, and several pieces 
struck Hahn ; at the same time, they heard heavy 



OCCURRENCES AT WEINSBERG. 277 

Mows, sometimes below, and sometimes over their 
heads, like the sound of distant guns ; still, attri- 
buting these sounds to natural causes, they went to 
bed as usual; but the uproar prevented their sleep- 
ing, and each accused the other of occasioning it by 
kicking with his feet against the foot-board of his 
bed ; till, finding that the noise continued when they 
both got out and stood together in the middle of the 
room, they were satisfied that this was not the case. 
On the following evening, a third noise was added, 
which resembled the faint and distant beating of a 
drum. Upon this, they requested the governess of 
the castle to sen,d them the key of the apartments 
above and below, which was brought them by her 
son ; and, whilst he and Kern went to make their 
investigations, Hahn remained in their own room. 
Above^ they found an empty room, below, a kitchen. 
They knocked, but the noise they made was very 
different to that which Hahn continued all the while 
to hear around him. When they returned, Hahn 
said, jestingly, ' The place is haunted!' On this 
night, when they went to bed with a light burning, 
they heard what seemed like a person walking about 
the room with slippers on, and a stick, with which 
he struck the floor as he moved step by step. Hahn 
continued to jest, and Kern to laugh, at the oddness 
of these circumstances for some time, when they 
both, as usual, fell asleep, neither in the slightest 
degree disturbed by these events, nor inclined to 
attribute them to any supernatural cause. But, on 
the following evening, the affair became more inex- 



278 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

plicable : various articles in the room were thrown 
about ; knives, forks, brushes^ caps, slippers, pad- 
locksj funnel, snuffers, soap — every thing, in short, 
that was moveable ; whilst lights darted from corner 
to corner, and every thing was in confusion ; at the 
sametime the lime fell, and the blows continued. 
Upon thisj the two friends called up the servants, 
Knittel, the castle watch, and whoever else was at 
hand, to be witnesses of these mysterious operations. 
In the morning, all was quiet, and generally con- 
tinued so till about an hour after midnight. One 
evening, Kern going into the above-mentioned 
chamber to fetch something, and hearing such an 
uproar that it almost drove him backwards to the 
door, Hahn caught up the light, and both rushed 
into the room, where they found a large piece of 
wood lying' close to the wainscot. But, supposing 
this to be the cause of the noise, who had set it in 
motion ? for Kern was sure the door was shut, even 
whilst the noise was making ; neither had there 
been any wood in the room. Frequently, before 
their eyes, the knives and snuffers rose from the 
table, and fell, after some minutes, to the ground ; 
and Hahn's large shears were once lifted in this 
manner between him and one of the Prince's cooks, 
and, falling to the ground, stuck into the floor. As 
some nights, however, passed quite quietly, Hahn 
was determined not to leave the rooms ; but when, 
for three weeks, the disturbance was so constant that 
they could get no rest, they resolved on removing 
their beds into the large room above, in hopes of 



OCCURRENCES AT WEINSBERG. 279 

once more enjoying a little quiet sleep. Their hopes 
were vain — the thumping continued as before ; and 
not only so, but articles flew about the room which 
they were quite sure they had left below. ^ They 
may fling as they will/ cried Hahn, ^ sleep I 
must ; * whilst Kern began to undress, pondering on 
these matters as he walked up and down the room. 
Suddenly Hahn saw him stand, as if transfixed, be- 
fore the looking-glass, on which he had accidentally 
cast his eyes. He had so stood for some minutes, 
when he was seized with a violent trembling, and 
turned from the mirror with his face as white as 
death. Hahn, fancying the cold of the uninhabited 
room had seized him, hastened to throw a cloak 
over him ; when Kern, who was naturally very 
courageous, recovered himself, and related, though 
with trembling lips, that, as he had accidentally 
looked in the glass, he had seen a white female 
figure looking out of it ; she was in front of his own 
image, which he distinctly saw behind her. At 
first, he could not believe his eyes ; he thought it 
must be fancy, and for that reason he had stood so 
long ; but when he saw that the eyes of the figure 
moved, and looked into his, a shudder had seized 
him, and he had turned away. Hahn, upon this, 
advanced with firm steps to the front of the mirror, 
and called upon the apparition to shew itself to him ; 
but he saw nothing, although he remained a quarter 
of an hour before the glass, and frequently repeated 
his exhortation. Kern then further related, that the 
features of the apparition were very old, but not 



280 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

gloomy or morose ; the expression, indeed, was 
rather that of indifference ; but the face was very 
pale, and the head was wrapt in a cloth which left 
only the features visible. 

'• By this time, it was four o'clock in the morning 
— sleep was banished from their eyes — and they 
resolved to return to the lower room, and have their 
beds brought back again ; but the people who were 
sent to fetch them returned, declaring they could not 
open the door, although it did not appear to be fas- 
tened. They were sent back again ; but a second, 
and a third time they returned, with the same answer. 
Then Hahn went himself, and opened it with the 
greatest ease. The four servants, however, solemnly 
declared, that all their united strengths could make 
no impression on it, 

" In this way a month had elapsed r the strange 
events at the castle had got spread abroad ; and, 
amongst others who desired to convince themselves 
of the facts, were two Bavarian officers of dragoons 
— namely. Captain Cornet and Lieutenant Magerle, 
of the regiment of Minuci. Magerle offering to 
remain in the room alone, the others left him ; but 
scarcely had they passed into the next apartment, 
when they heard Magerle storming like a man in a 
passion, and cutting away at the tables and chairs 
with his sabre ; whereupon the Captain thought it 
advisable to return, in order to rescue the furniture 
from his rage. They found the door shut, but he 
opened it on their summons ; and related, in great 
excitement, that as soon as they had quitted the 



OCCURRENCES AT WEINSBERG. 281 

room, some cursed thing had begun to fling lime, 
and other matters at him ; and having examined 
every part of the room, without being able to dis- 
cover the agent of the mischief, he had fallen into a 
rage, and cut madly about him. 

" The party now passed the rest of the evening 
together in the room ; and the two Bavarians closely 
watched Hahn and Kern, in order to satisfy them- 
selves that the mystery was no trick of theirs. All 
at once, as they were quietly sitting at the table, the 
snuffers rose into the air, and fell again to the ground, 
behind Magerle ; and a leaden ball flew at Hahn, 
and hit him upon the breast ; and presently after- 
wards, they heard a noise at the glass-door, as if 
somebody had struck his fist through it, together 
with a sound of falling glass. On investigation, 
they found the door entire, but a broken drinking- 
glass on the floor. By this time the Bavarians were 
convinced, and they retired from the room, to seek 
repose in one more peaceful. 

" Amongst other strange circumstances, the fol- 
lowing, which occurred to Hahn, is remarkable. One 
evening, about eight o'clock, being about to shave 
himself, the implements for the purpose, which were 
lying on a pyramidal stand in a corner of the room, 
flew at him, one after the other — the soap-box, the 
razor, the brush, and the soap — and fell at his feet, 
although he was standing several paces from the 
pyramid. He and Kern, who was sitting at the 
table, laughed ; for they were now so accustomed to 
these events^ that they only made them subjects of 



282 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

diversion. In the meantime, Halm poured some 
water, which had been standing on the stove, in a 
basin, observing, as he dipped his finger into it, that 
it was of a nice heat for shaving. He seated him- 
self before the table, and strapped his razor; but 
when he attempted to prepare the lather, the water 
had clean vanished out of the basin. Another time, 
Hahn was awakened by the goblins throwing at him 
a squeezed-up piece of sheet-lead, in which tobacco 
had been wrapped ; and, when he stooped to pick it 
up, the self-same piece was flung at him again. 
When this was repeated a third time, Hahn flung a 
heavy stick at his invisible assailant. 

'^ Dorfel, the book-keeper, was frequently a wit- 
ness to these strange events. He once laid his cap 
on the table by the stove ; when, being about to 
depart, he sought for it, it had vanished. Four or 
five times he examined the table in vain ; presently 
afterwards, he saw it lying exactly where he had 
placed it when he came in. On the same table, 
Knittel having once placed his cap, and drawn him- 
self a seat, suddenly — although there was nobody 
near the table — he saw it flying through the room to 
his feet, where it fell. 

^^ Hahn now determined to find out the secret 
himself, and for this purpose, seated himself, with 
two lights before him, in a position where he could 
see the whole of the room, and all the windows and 
doors it contained; but the same things occurred 
even when Kern was out, the servants in the stables, 
and nobody in the castle but himself; and the 



OCCURRENCES AT WEINSBERG. 283 

snuffers were as usual flung about, although the 
closest observation could not detect by whom. 

" The forest-master, Radezensky, spent a night in 
the room ; but although the two friends slept, he 
could get no rest. He was bombarded without in- 
termission, and in the morning, his bed was found 
full of all manner of household articles. 

" One evening, in spite of all the drumming and 
flinging, Hahn was determined to sleep ; but a heavy 
blow on the wall, close to his bed, soon waked him 
from his slumbers. A second time he went to sleep, 
and was awaked by a sensation, as if some person 
had dipped his finger in water, and was sprinkling 
his face with it. He pretended to sleep again, whilst 
he watched Kern and Knittel, who were sitting at 
the table ; the sensation of sprinkling recurred, but 
he could find no water on his face. 

'^ About this time, Hahn had occasion to tlake a 
journey as far as Breslau ; and when he returned, 
he heard the strangest story of all. In order not to 
be alone in this mysterious chamber, Kern had en- 
gaged Hahn s servant — a man of about forty years 
of age, and of entire singleness of character — to stay 
with him. One night, as Kern lay in bed, and this 
man was standing near the glass-door in conversa- 
tion with him, to his utter amazement, he beheld a 
jug of beer, which stood on a table in the room at 
some distance from him, slowly lifted to a height of 
about three feet, and the contents poured into a glass, 
that was standing there also, until the latter was 



284 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

half-full. The jug was then gently replaced, and 
the glass lifted and emptied, as by some one drink- 
ing ; whilst John, the servant, exclaimed, in terrified 
surprise, ' Lord Jesus ! it swallows/ The glass was 
quietly replaced, and not a drop of beer was to be 
found on the floor. Hahn was about to require an 
oath of John, in confirmation of this fact ; but for- 
bore, seeing how ready the man was to take one, 
and satisfied of the truth of the relation. 

" One night Knetsch, an inspector of the works, 
passed the night with the two friends ; and, in spite 
of the unintermitting flinging, they all three went 
to bed. There were lights in the room ; and pre- 
sently, all three saw two napkins, in the' middle of 
the room, rise slowly up to the ceiling, and having 
there spread themselves out, flutter down again. 
The china bowl of a pipe, belonging to Kern, flew 
about, •and was broken. Knives and forks were 
flung ; and at last one of the latter fell on Hahn's 
head, though fortunately with the handle downwards; 
and, having now endured this annoyance for two 
months, it was unanimously resolved to abandon this 
mysterious chamber, for this night at all events. 
John and Kern took up one of the beds, and carried 
it into the opposite room ; but they were no sooner 
gone, than a pitcher for holding chalybeate-water 
flew to the feet of the two who remained behind, 
although no door was open, and a brass candlestick 
was flung to the ground. In the opposite room the 
night passed quietly, although some sounds still 



OCCURRENCES AT WEINSBERG. 285 

issued from the forsakeu cliamber. After this, there 
was a cessation to these strange proceedings, and 
nothing more remarkable occurred, with the excep- 
tion of the following circumstance : — Some weeks 
after the above-mentioned removal, as Hahn was 
returning home^ and crossing the bridge that leads 
to the castle gate, he heard the foot of a dog behind 
him. He looked round, and called repeatedly on 
the name of a greyhound that was much attached to 
him, thinking it might be her ; but although he still 
heard the foot, even when he ascended the stairs, as 
he could see nothing, he concluded it was an illusion. 
Scarcely, however, had he set his foot within the 
room, than Kern advanced and took the door out of 
his hand, at the same time, calling the dog by name ; 
adding, however, immediately, that he thought he 
had seen the dog, but that he had no sooner called 
her than she disappeared. Hahn then inquired, if 
he had really seen the dog. ' Certainly I did/ re- 
plied Kern ; ' she was close behind you — half within 
the door — and that was the reason I took it out of 
your hand, lest, not observing her, you should have 
shut it suddenly, and crushed her. It was a white 
dog, and I took it for Flora.' Search was imme- 
diately made for the dog, but she was found locked 
up in the stable, and had not been out of it the whole 
day. It is certainly remarkable — even supposing 
Hahn to have been deceived with respect to the 
footsteps — that Kern should have seen a white dog 
behind him, before he had heard a word on the sub- 



286 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

ject from his friend, especially as there was no such 
animal in the neighbourhood ; besides, it was not yet 
dark, and Kern was very sharp-sighted. 

" Hahn remained in the castle for half a year 
after this, without experiencing any thing extra- 
ordinary ; and even persons who had possession of 
the mysterious chambers, were not subjected to any 
annoyance. 

" The riddle, however, in spite of all the perqui- 
sitions and investigations that were set on foot, re- 
mained unsolved — no explanation of these strange 
events could be found ; and even supposing any 
motive could exist, there was nobody in the neigh- 
bourhood clever enough to have carried on such a 
system of persecution, which lasted so long, that the 
inhabitants of the chamber became almost indifferent 
to it." 

In conclusion, it is only necessary to add, that 
Councillor Hahn wrote down this account for his 
own satisfaction, with the strictest regard to truth. 
His words are — 

" I have described these events exactly as I heard 
and saw them ; from beginning to end, I observed 
them with the most entire self-possession. I had no 
fear, nor the slightest tendency to it ; yet the whole 
thing remains to me perfectly inexplicable. 

" Written the 19th November 1808. 

" Augustus Hahn, Councillor" 



OCCURRENCES AT WEINSBERG. 287 

Doubtless, many natural explanations of these 
phenomena will be suggested, by those who consider 
themselves above the weakness of crediting stories 
of this description. Some say that Kern was a 
dextrous juggler^ who contrived to throw dust in the 
eyes of his friend Hahn ; whilst others affirm, that 
both Hahn and Kern were intoxicated every even- 
ing. I did not fail to communicate these objections 
to Hahn, and here insert his answer. 

" After the events alluded to, I resided with Kern 
for a quarter of a year, in another part of the castle 
of Slawensick, (which has been since struck by light- 
ning, and burnt,) without finding a solution of the 
mystery, or experiencing a repetition of the annoy- 
ance, which discontinued from the moment we quitted 
those particular apartments. Those persons must 
suppose me very weak, who can imagine it possible, 
that with only one companion, I could have been 
the subject of his sport for two months, without de- 
tecting him. As for Kern himself, he was, from the 
first, very anxious to leave the rooms ; but as I was 
unwilling to resign the hope of discovering some 
natural cause for these phenomena, I persisted in 
remaining ; and the thing that at last induced me to 
yield to his wishes, was his vexation at the loss of 
his china pipe, which had been flung against the wall 
and broken. Besides, jugglery requires a juggler, 
and I was frequently quite alone when these events 
occurred. It is equally absurd to accuse us of in - 



288 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

toxication. The wine there was too dear^ for us to 
drink it at all ; and we confined ourselves wholly to 
weak beer. All the circumstances that happened 
are not set down in the narration ; but my recollec- 
tion of the whole is as vivid as if it had occurred 
yesterday. We had also many witnesses, some of 
whom have been mentioned. Councillor Klenk also 
visited me at a later period, with every desire to in- 
vestigate the mystery ; and when, one morning, he 
had mounted on a table, for the purpose of doing so, 
and was knocking at the ceiling with a stick, a 
powder-horn fell upon him, which he had just before 
left on the table in another room. At that time, 
Kern had been for some time absent. I neglected 
no possible means^ that could have led to a discovery 
of the secret; and at least as many people have 
blamed me, for my unwillingness to believe in a 
supernatural cause, as the reverse. Fear is not my 
failing, as all who are acquainted with me know ; 
and, to avoid the possibility of error, I frequently 
asked others what they saw, when I was myself 
present; and their answers always coincided with 
what I saw myself. From 1809 to 1811, I lived in 
Jacobswald, very near the castle, where the prince 
himself was residing. I am aware that some singu- 
lar circumstances occurred whilst he was there ; but, 
as I did not witness them myself, I cannot speak of 
them more particularly. 

" I am still as unable as ever to account for those 
events ; and I am content to submit to the hasty 



OCCURRENCES AT WEINSBERG. 289 

remarks of the world, kD owing that I have only 
related the truth, and what many persons now alive 
witnessed, as well as myself, 

^' Councillor Hahn."^ 
'^ Ingelfingen, 24ifA August ] 828." 



We now return to the apparitions seen by Mrs. 
H . 

On the 8th of October 1828, at nine o'clock, in 
the evening — she being in bed, and her mother, sister, 
and a Mrs. Mensch, (who did not believe in ghosts,) 
in the anteroom — the door of her room suddenly 
opened^ without any apparent cau'se, and the spectre 
of a man that she had seen before, but not lately, 
entered the room. It advanced to her bedside, and 
stood calmly looking at her. The persons in the 
ante-room were only made conscious of the spectre's 
proximity, by a sensation of strange uneasiness ; but 

Mrs. H afterwards related, that she saw it walk 

round them in a half-circle. Immediately after- 
wards, Mrs. M felt a blow under her chair^ that 

seemed to lift it from the ground, whilst she cried 

aloud for help. The sister of Mrs. H , although 

she did not see the spectre with her eyes, saw it, as 
she described, from within, and was able to describe 
it. She added, that it appeared to her that the 
shade had thoughts which were communicated to 

* After the destruction of the castle by lightning, when the 
ruins were removed, there was found the skeleton of a man, 
without a coffin. His skull had been split, and a sword lay by 
his side. 

T 



290 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

Ler, and which moved her with pity. From the de- 
scription of this very simple girl, I thus understood 
how ghost-seers perceive spectres : it is not by mean& 
of the ordinary organs of sight, but by inspira- 
tion as it were — a magnetic awakening of the spirit 
within. 

Mrs. H did not mention the name of this 

spectre, w^hom she only recognized by his having, on 
a former occasion, spoken of his son, with whom she 
was acquainted. On the following night, the mother 

and sister of Mrs. H dreamt that Mr. N 

had appeared to them, and said something about hi& 
son. This was the name of the spectre ; and they 
both dreamed the same dream. When they related 

their dream on the following morning, Mrs. H , 

for the first time, told them who the spectre was. 
In the ensuing night, Mrs. Mensch, who was resid- 

ino* in the same house with Mrs. H , was awak- 

ened by a sensation that something v/as touching her, 
and she saw beside her bed the figure of a man, with 
a pocket-handkerchief in his hand, with which he 
appeared to have touched her. Being alarmed, she 
sprang out of her own bed into that of her husband, 

which was close by. When Mrs. M- described 

this apparition to Mrs. H , she recognized it for 

the same spectre by the pocket-handkerchief, with 
which he had always appeared. On naming him to 

Mrs. M , she learned what she had never had 

the slightest suspicion of — namely, that he was a 
near relation of that lady. 

On the 8th December, at seven o'clock, being 



OCCURRENCES AT WEINSBERG. 291 

myself in the anteroom, from which I could see 

into Mrs. H 's bedroom, I perceived there a 

cloud-like form — a sort of pillar of cloud — with a 
head, but no defined outline. I hastily caught up a 
candle, and, rushing into the room, found her with 
her eyes staring on the spot where I had seen the 
figure ; but to me it was no longer visible. This 
would naturally be the consequence of the bright 
light. The room was previously but imperfectly 
lighted, and the white cloud-like form was more 
perceptible on the dark ground. When I inquired 
what she was looking at, she replied, that the spectre 
of N : had been there, and given her a commis- 
sion to his son. She expressed her surprise that this 
spectre had been able to render himself visible to so 
many persons. This apparition I partly saw ; and 
it is the only one I ever did see. 



SEVENTH FACT. 



The Reverend Mr. H had frequently men- 
tioned to me, the inexplicable noises heard in his 
house at night, as of knocking, rolling of a ball, 
breathing close to his bed, &c. ; and especially the 
footsteps of a man, and the simultaneous opening of 
the door of his chamber. These steps he had fre- 
quently followed, but without ever discovering their 
cause ; and he, moreover, remarked, that these noises 
were more perceptible immediately before the death 
of any of his children, of whom he lost many. 

Being appointed to another cure, he quitted the 



292 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

place, without having communicated these circum- 
stances to Mr. R , the gentleman appointed to 

succeed him. But no sooner had the latter estab- 
lished himself in the house, than he found himself 
disturbed in the same manner, whilst his endeavours 
to discover the cause of them were equally unsuc- 
cessful. A female meniber of the family, however, 
declared, that she had been met by a dark form^ and 
had been awakened by such an one appearing to her 
in the night. It is a very remarkable circumstance, 
that the sister of Mrs. H (whom we have men- 
tioned as possessing the faculty of ghost-seeing) 
having once slept in this house, dreamed that a tall 
dark form stood before her, and that she had felt 

herself impelled to cry, " R sch ! away from 

me ! " whereupon she awoke; but saw nothing. On 

relating this to the Reverend Mr. R in the 

morning, he referred to the church-register, where 
he found that a person of that name had actually 
inhabited the house about sixty years before — a 
circumstance quite unknown, both to him and to 

Mrs. H 's sister. 

We have frequently mentioned, in these pages, 
the influence of the presence of spectres on sleepers. 



EIGHTH FACT. 



Mrs. W von H , a lady of education, 

and remarkable presence of mind, had been eight 
days in the house with the Seherin, whilst the latter 
was visited by spectres, without either seeing or 



OCCURRENCES AT WEINSBERG. 203 

feeling any thing of them, although she frequently 
heard them. On the ninth morning, however, she 
related to me what follows : — "It was eleven o'clock 

at night, and I was sitting by Mrs. H 's bedside, 

who was lying quite still, when I was suddenly 
seized by a most unaccountable feeling of anxiety 
and oppression ; insomuch, that without saying a 
word, I hastily undressed myself, and leaving my 
clothes on the floor, I jumped into bed, and covered 
my head with the counterpane. Presently collecting 
myself, however, although the oppression still con- 
tinued, I sat up, and looked round the room. There 
was nothing to be seen, but as I lay down again, 
something invisible drew the pillow from under my 
head, and laid it on my face. I replaced it, and the 
same thing occurred ; and there was afterwards a 
continual pulling at the bed-covering. As I saw 
Mrs. H lyiiig quietly the whole time, and ap- 
parently asleep, I said nothing to her on the subject ; 
but when, in the morning, I saw my clothes on a 
chair by my bedside, I could not help expressing my 
surprise, certain as I was that I had left them on the 

floor — that Mrs. H was not able to put her foot 

out of bed — and that no person whatever had been 

in the room. But Mrs. H answered me, " When 

you left your clothes on the floor, there was a dark 
spirit in the room, and I saw him lift them, and lay 
them on the chair. He took no notice of me, but 
occupied himself wholly with you ; but I said no- 
thing, lest I should alarm you." 



294 THE SEERESS OF FREVORSTr 



NINTH FACT. 

In August 1 828, two spirits frequented Mrs. H ^ 

of whose appearance she made a secret. She said^ 
she was forbidden to tell their names, and I should 
have remained in ignorance of them, but for the 
following circumstances : — On entering her room, on 
the 11th August, she came to me in great agitation; 
and when I pressed her to tell me the cause, she 
confessed that one of these — one who had died here 
— had just appeared to her, and had desired her * * 
(Here followed a revelation, to be made to one still 
on earth.) The spectre appeared to her in a great- 
coat, boots, and cap, but without a neckcloth ; and 
although she had never seen him, she described him 
exactly, as she did also his companion, who had been 
his friend when alive. They afterwards appeared in 
white robes, looking like thin clouds, through which 
the blue sky was shining. 

She told me that no spectres had moved her so 
much as these. They were weighed down by no 
crime, but they had doubted, and been infirm of 
faith ; and at last, when conviction had come, in 
their dying moments, they had despaired of pardon. 
Of all this I should have learned nothing, had it 
not been necessary that I should fulfil the commis- 
sion ; which I did. 

At my request, she afterwards made the following 
inquiry of one of these spirits : — " In your present 
state, do you still pursue your researches into na- 



OCCURRENCES AT WEINSBERG. 295 

ture?" He answered, "Yes; but in a different, 
and inexpressibly higher manner than I did on 
earth." 

When I had performed th^ commission, he who 
had given it appeared in a brighter shape, and told 
her it was for the last time. As she said nothing 
of his companion, I concluded he had also left her ; 
but after her apparent waking, I was surprised to 
hear her say, on the 23d September, that a spectre 
— whom, by her description, I recognized to be the 
friend — had appeared to her, reproaching her with 
not having done what he desired, and bidding her 
compensate this neglect by a special prayer. From 
what she told me, at a later period, I recognized 
this spirit to be that of a relation of my own, whom 
I had only once, (and that in my childhood,) and 
she never, seen. The commission was to me ; and 
she had forborne, from timidity, to communicate it. 
I then directed her to inquire his name, and to learn 
the periods of his birth and death ; and, as we have 
related, in a former part of this volume, our inves- 
tigations confirmed the information she obtained. 

On the night of the 15th of October, this spirit 
appeared to her for the last time ; he said, he was 
now in a happy place, and vanished, saying, ^^ Die 
in the faith of your loving Father, Redeemer, and 
Mediator, (to which he added something she could 
not remember) and cast away all that may impede 
you." 



296 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 



TENTH FACT. 

On the night of the 8th October 1828, the girl 
from Lbwenstein, who had the faculty of seeing 

spectres, slept in Mrs. H 's antechamber ; and 

in the morning, she related to me, that, between 
twelve and one, the door had opened and shut, and 
a man had entered with a black coat on, and a sandy- 
grey face. He looked sadly, and passed quietly 

through to Mrs. H 's room. Presently came 

another, shorter and thicker ; and then a third, also 
in a black coat. They did not stay long with Mrs* 

H , but shortly returned. She sat up in bed, 

to look at them, but could not speak ; and the door 
opened and closed, each time one passed through. 

Mrs. H had seen them, but merely as cloudy 

forms, and without black coats. They came to in- 
quire the way to salvation, but &he had bade them 
address themselves to their Redeemer. 

On the night of the 9th, the girl saw another 

spectre enter Mrs. H 's room, whom the latter 

informed us was an inhabitant of this place, and 
not long deceased ; on which account, for the sake 
of his friends, she did not name him. From this 
spirit she learned, that in the middle-state, those of 
a similar disposition associate with each other; and 
also that they are not able to see all persons, but 
only one here and there — and then, only in the dark 
hues in which they see every thing. 



OCCURRENCES AT WEINSBERG. 297 



ELEVENTH FACT. 

Extract from a letter addressed to me by Mr. 
Pfleiderer : — 

'' In the month of June 1827, I was requested by 
my principal, Mr Schmiedgall of Lowenstein, to 
remain some days with his niece at Weinsberg, 
who was then extremely ill, for the purpose of 
superintending the application of his prescriptions, 
which he was then unable to do himself. I slept on 

a sofa in the sitting-room, and Mrs. H in a 

smaller room adjoining ; and, from the very first 
night I lay there, I was awakened regularly, be- 
tween the hours of one and two, by an indescribable 
feeling of fear and oppression — a circumstance which 
had never occurred to me before. On the sixth day, 
I was called home, and there the same thing con- 
tinued ; but, on the first night I returned to Weins- 
berg, I was awakened, not only by oppression, but 
by a sensation of being shaken." 

[J must here interrupt the narrative of Mr P. for 
the purpose of mentioning, that, at this time, Mrs* 

H had secretly told me, begging me not to 

speak of it to Mr. P., that nightly, between the 
hours of one and two, she observed, through the 
open door, a male figure approach and hang over 
Mr. P., who thereon awoke, whilst the spectre made 
strange signs to him with its finger. As this awaken- 
ing was increasing, and Mr P. had consulted me on 
the subject, I referred him to Mrs. H , and re- 
commended her to tell him what she had seen.] 



298 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

" As this awakening was becoming more and 
more annoying, and I had complained of it, Mrs. 

H told me^ that nightly, between eleven and 

twelve, she saw a tall dark form, in a frock and 
boots, who approached within some paces of my bed, 
and pointed to me with his fore-finger ; then he drew 
nearer, and hung over me, and, when I awakened, 
seemed to beckon me with his finger. In order to 
prove the truth of this intelligence, I resolved to 
watch one night ; and, having provided myself with 

a companion, I requested Mrs. H to call to me 

when she saw the spectre. 

" At the usual hour, being awake, and in conver- 
sation with my friend, I felt the above-mentioned 
oppression, and, at the same time, was sensible of an 
unaccustomed air blowing upon me. I had not said 
a syllable on the subject, but was just on the point 

of asking Mrs. H if the spirit was there, 

when she called to me that he was. Then I ad- 
dressed the spectre, bidding him, in the name of 
God, tell me who he was, and what I could do to 
serve him. I had no sooner uttered these words, 
however, than the oppression ceased; and I heard 

Mrs. H say — ' I forbid you to advance a step 

further.' She told me that, when I spoke, the spirit 
had left me and gone towards her ,* and that she had 
heard him say, as he disappeared — ' This was one of 
my scholars.' 

" By Mrs. H 's farther description, I ascer- 
tained this to have been an old teacher of mine, 
whose character and history I cannot further dis- 



OCCURRENCES AT WEINSBERG. 299 

close. Mrs. H — — had never heard of the existence 
of this man* 

" For a quarter of a year after this^ wherever I 
might be^ the same feelings recurred at the same 
hour ; and, if I was asleep, I was inevitably awaken- 
ed by it. 

*' W. D. Pfleiderer. 

"Heilbronn, 2{^th October 1838." 



TWELFTH FACT. 

A man, for whom Mrs. H had prescribed in 

a case of delirium tremens, having died, he appeared 
to her, as long as he lay in his house, in his coffin, 
making revelations which he desired should be im- 
parted to his wife. I was present at his death, and 
observed how anxious he was to make some com- 
munications after the power of speech had left him. 
I pass over the revelations, only remarking that Mrs. 

H told us that he expressed great anxiety about 

one of his daughters. Four weeks afterwards, a tile 
fell on her and fractured her skull ; and she under- 
went a painful operation with such astonishing firm- 
ness, and recovered so fast, that we might almost 
imagine a protecting spirit was at hand supporting 
her. 



THIRTEENTH PACT. 



On Christmas night, 1828, four spectres appeared 
to Mrs. H 5 three men and a woman, who ap- 



300 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

peared to be dancing. She said to them — " Are ye 
really devils, that ye so profane this night ?" where- 
upon they all vanished. On the 5th of February, 
they appeared again at midnight, demeaning them- 
selves as before, when she commanded them, in the 
name of Jesus, to cease ; upon which they stood 
motionless, and looked fixedly at her. Then she 
cried to them — " Are you so well off that you dance 
on this holy day? — and is it thus you shew your 
gratitude to your Redeemer ?" At this they moaned 
as if in pain, and begged her to abstain from them. 
She asked them if they had no desire to elevate 
themselves and become happy ; but they said their 
sins forbade them; whereon she desired them to 
leave her. They came again on the 1 3th, stood at 
the door, and looked inquiringly at her ; and, when 
she said — '' Praised be the name of Him whq died 
on the cross \" they cried — " Yea," and vanished. 

These spectres frequented her for a considerable 
time, and she often prayed with them. Latterly, 
they were accompanied by a brighter form, and they 
themselves appeared in the robes that signified an 
amendment in their condition, though they were yet 
dark. At length they took leave of her, saying 
they were now able to assist themselves, with the 
aid of happy spirits. 



FOURTEENTH FACT. 



On the 10th November 1827, Mrs. H told 

me that, since her awakening, (she did not know 



OCCURRENCES AT WEINSBERG. 301 

whether she had seen him before,) she was visited 
by the spectre of a young man, who said he had died 
in the neighbourhood, and wished her to make some 
revelation to his parents and sisters. She bade him 
do it himself; but he answered that he could not, 
and persevered in his entreaties. On the 2 1st, he 
appeared, and begged that, on the following night, 
she would read to him a certain hymn. When he 
came for that purpose, he was accompanied by an 
aged female spectre, from whom shone so bright a 
light, that, although it was quite dark, she could see 
to read the hymn, which she otherwise did not know. 
She said she believed that this light, in which good 
spirits shone, was hidden in all good men, but not 
yet developed. I should not have heard of this 
spectre, had I not chanced to mention to Mrs. 

H that, some years before, a youth had died in 

the house she was then inhabiting. This alarmed 
her, and led her to mention the apparition ; but, by 
her description, I perceived it was not him, but one 
who really died in the neighbourhood, as he said. 
A few weeks afterwards, a circumstance occurred in 
his family, which fully justified his anxiety and ex- 
plained the signification of the hymn he had selected. 



FIFTEENTH FACT. 



On the 20th November 1829, at eleven in the 
morning, Mrs. H 's deceased brother, Henry, ap- 
peared to her, saying only — " Think of our mother ! " 
She was seized with convulsions ; and, when she re- 



302 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

covered, she related what had happened, and ex- 
pressed fears for her mother's safety. At this time, 
neither she, nor any of us, knew that her mother 
was on the way to visit her daughter ; but two 
hours afterwards she arrived, in extreme terror, say- 
ing that she had escaped a great danger, the horses 
having run away on a steep mountain. I ascertain- 
ed from the driver that the accident had occurred 
precisely at eleven o'clock. 



SIXTEENTH FACT. 



For five weeks, unknown to me, Mrs. H was 

visited by my lately deceased friend P., who had. 
taken great interest in her, and who had frequently 
visited her to obtain information with respect to the 
middle-state, in which he was a firm believer. He 
did not appear sad, but rather comforted by the 
certainty of attaining happiness. She begged him 
to make himself visible, or audible, to me, and he 
promised the latter. On the same night that she 
had made this request, I was suddenly seized by a 
strange sensation, and, at the same time, heard some 
inexplicable sounds in our quiet bed-chamber. I 
knew nothing of this request, nor she of my sensa- 
tions, till she afterwards told me of P.'s visits, and 
that he had given her a commission for his son. She 
observed that she had never seen the hair of the un- 
blessed spirits, but that that of the happy ones was 
visible. 



OCCURRENCES AT WEINSBERG. 303 



SEVENTEENTH PACT. 

Amongst other spirits, Mrs. H was visited, 

in February 1828, by two youths^ one of whom, by 
her description, I recognized for a person not long 
dead, but whom she had never seen. They request- 
ed her prayers ; and one of them said that he was 
always near his mother, whom he could not leave. 
This person — the mother — knew nothing whatever 

of Mrs. H , nor of this apparition ; yet she often 

told me that she felt her son was always near her, 
and that she had frequently seen him ; and one day 
she added that she had seen him in a dream, looking 
brighter and happier, and that he had taken leave of 
her. T mentioned this to nobody whatever, and 

Mrs. H had assuredly no means of hearing 

of this dream ; I was, therefore, greatly surprised 
the next day, when, happening to call at a mo- 
ment that this woman was passing the house, I 

heard Mrs. H 's mother say — " If that woman 

only knew what happened last night 1 " I inquired 
what it was, when she mentioned that the youth had 
appeared brighter than before, and said that he could 

no longer remain near his mother. Mrs. H had 

asked him if he should visit his mother no more, he 
answered — '' Oh yes ; but now I must leave her." 



EIGHTEENTH FACT. 



On the 23d December 1828, at seven o'clock in 
the evening, I was alone with Mrs. H , wlien 



304 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

the door suddenly opened as if a person had entered. 
I went to look who he was, but could see nobody 

either in the room or out of it. Mrs. H had, 

however, seen a female enter in an antique costume, 
who immediately departed. When next she came, 
she walked silently about the room, and then slowly 
rose, and departed through the open window. On 
another occasion, I being present, the door opened 
and shut visibly, when she entered. At length this 
spectre also requested her prayers and instructions ; 
and, after about four months, she became brighter, 
ceased to disappear by the window, and finally dis- 
continued her visits. 



NINETEENTH FACT. 



On the night of the 23d December 1828, at two 
o'clock, I was awakened by an extraordinary and 
indescribable sensation, as if I were in a wholly 
different atmosphere. It lasted, however, but a 
short time, and I fell asleep again. When I called 
on Mrs. H in the morning, she immediately in- 
quired whether, at two o'clock, I had been visited by 
a spirit. I told her what I had felt ; whereon she 
said, with timidity — ^' You are always asking for 
proofs of the reality of these apparitions. Last 
night, a dark spirit came to me, and I said nothing 
to him except, ' I command you to go directly to 
my physician/ he answered, ' I will/ and disap- 
peared." 



OCCURRENCES AT WEINSBERG. 305 



TWENTIETH FACT. 

On the 9th December 1828, eight months after 
the death of Mrs. H — — 's father, her waiting- 
maid, who slept in the anteroom, awakened at mid- 
night, and heard the door of the room open. She 

looked up, and saw the father of Mrs. H as 

he lived, pass through the room with a friendly 
aspect, saying — '' So, you are there." She saw him 

as far as the door of Mrs. H 's room, when he 

disappeared. He was not visible to Mrs. H , 

who slept calmly ; but related in the morning a 
dream she had had of her father. It is remarkable 
that, on the same night, he appeared to her brother 
and sister, each living far from her, and from each 
other. The latter called to her husband, who was 
asleep, to awake and look at her father. 



TWENTY-FIRST FACT. 

At one time, for a whole week, as well by night 

as day, Mrs. H frequently saw a dark male 

figure near her maid-servant ; but she said nothing 
on the subject, neither did the girl. On the night of 
the 13th January 1829, this spectre came and bent 
over the young woman's bed, whereon she sat up 

and looked about her. Mrs. H— observed, but 

said nothing ; and the girl silently lay down again. 
In the morning, she related that she had seen a 
greyish figure by her bedside, whose face was 
brighter than the rest of the person. Mrs. H 



306 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST, 

never mentioned to any body but me that* she saw 
the apparition. 



TWENTY-SECOND FACT. 



On Friday, March 20th, at nine o'clock at night, 

Mrs. H being awake, there suddenly appeared 

to her a female form in an ancient costume, holding 
a human heart in her hand. She was extremely 
frightened, and turned away her face till she felt 
the figure had disappeared. This apparition made 
so great an impression on her, that, in the morning, 
she made a drawing of it. This drawing was litho- 
graphed at the desire of Eschenmayer. Four nights 
afterwards, she was awakened by a sound like the 
running down of a church clock, and looking up 
she saw the same figure with the heart in her hand, 
whilst with the other she pointed to it and said, " This 

was the larum." As Mrs. H never spoke with 

this spectre, it is uncertain whether the following 
circumstance is connected with her appearance: — 
On the same 20th March, the persons living in 
houses adjoining the cathedral at Oberstenfeld, were 
alarmed by a loud noise, that seemed to proceed 
from under the church. Investigations were imme- 
diately made, but no cause for it discovered ; and 
they found it impossible to open the vaults, though 
they had the key, and the lock was generally easy 
enough. On the following day, however, they did 
not find the same difficulty ; and they found, on the 
place that the spectre-knight had pointed out to Mrs. 



OCCURRENCES AT WEINSBERG. 307 

H y several rolls of parchment, containing genea- 
logical tables of the ancient canonesses, on one of 
which appeared the name of that knight's wife. I 

refer to the first fact at Oberstenfeld. Mrs. H 

often said that an unhappy female spirit was much 
more terrific to her than a male. And it is not to 
be denied, that the wickedness of an ill-disposed 
woman is more inventive and dangerous than the 
more open and direct mischief of an ill-disposed 
man. 



We have frequently mentioned that Mrs. H 

had the power of exorcising spirits by means of 
written words used as amulets ; and, however in- 
credible these assertions may appear^ they are sub- 
stantiated by the following facts. Let those who 
doubt inquire of those to whom these things occurred; 
but people pronounce upon them by their fire -sides, 
without ever giving themselves the trouble. 



FIRST FACT. 



In Kleingartach there was an elderly woman 
called Fritzlen, who was disturbed in an extraordin- 
ary manner for twenty-four years. She was lying 
awake when she first heard a cracking in her room, 
which was followed by a blue light, and the appear- 
ance of a creature something like a frog, which ap- 
proached her bed and then vanished. Another 
night she felt the hand of a child in hers, and, on 
forcing her own away, she was oppressed as by a 



308 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

great weight. From that time she was nightly dis- 
turbed, generally first by the light, and afterwards 
by the appearance of some strange living form, as 
an owl, a cat, a frightful horse, &c. &c., till she was 
reduced almost to despair. 

As this woman referred me to her neighbours for 
a confirmation of this story, I requested an ac- 
quaintance of mine at Kleingartach to inquire into 
it ; and he informed me that a very respectable 
houest man, called Frederick Molle, as well as the 
husband of Fritzlen, assured him of the truth of it. 

Fritzlen, said Molle, having often lamented this 
persecution, he agreed to let her pass a night in his 
house, and that he would take her place. He did 
so, and, about twelve o'clock, he saw a four-cornered 
piece of paper rise and float over the bed, and then 
descending, take the form of a little man about the 
fourth of a foot high, who approached the bed. He 
snatched at the figure, but could feel nothing ; and 
the husband of Fritzlen struck at it repeatedly with 
a sabre, but to no purpose. It remained upwards of 
two hours, seeming to provoke them all the time, 
and then vanished. Molle was determined to try 
another night ; and then, about the same hour, there 
appeared a creature like a frog, sitting on the pole 
of the bed, its appearance being preceded by a 
crackling noise and a bluish light. It repeatedly 
pulled at the bed-covering ; and Fritzlen's husband 
prayed and cursed, but it remained for two hours, 
and then appeared to Fritzlen herself, in jVIolle's 
house. 



OCCURRENCES AT WEINSBERG. 309 

Respecting this last fact, we refer to Molle's wife, 
who said that, about two o'clock, she heard several 
strange noises, and the door of the room opened. 
Fritzlen, at the same time, appearing very uneasy, 
and breathing very hard, she nudged her in the side 
to wake her, supposing she was suffering from a 
dream ; but she (Fritzlen) said she was not asleep, 
but that it was her persecutor, who was appearing in 
the form of a huntsman, and pointing his gun at her. 

After this, Molle's wife would consent to no more 
experiments, lest they should bring this unpleasant 
visiter to their own house. 

Fritzlen knew nothing of Mrs. H ; and it was 

by a mere accident that I was informed of her mis- 
fortune. I sent her to Mrs. H , who gave her 

an amulet, containing a word in the characters that 
expressed her inner language. Some weeks after-^ 
wards, my acquaintance from Kleingartach wrote 
me that the woman could not be sufficiently grateful 
to God and to us for her relief. From that time the 
evil ceased; and twelve months afterwards her daugh- 
ter came to me, and requested only to see the house 
whence her mother had derived a blessing which she 
had vainly sought for so many years. 



SECOND FACT. 



In the month of March of the present year 1829, 
there came to me an elderly man from Diembach, 
accompanied by a boy about twelve years of age, 
who related to me that, some months since, being in 



310 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

the forest of Diembach with another boy, they had 
climbed into an oak ; presently there arose a sort of 
whirlwind, which was, however, confined to that 
spot, as no tree stirred but that they were on. The 
wind soon fell, and then they saw beneath the tree a 
woman clothed in white, who beckoned them to go 
with her. They descended and followed her, though 
reluctantly ; but, at a certain spot, she suddenly dis- 
appeared. " We stood still/* said the boy, " and 
looked at each other." 

I should have paid no attention to the relation of 
this very simple child, but for the following circum- 
stance : — On the 1 9th of May, there came to me the 
wife of a poor day-labourer, called Kummerlin, from 
Ellhofen, complaining that, for several years, her 
husband had been subject to a strange sort of anxiety 
and oppression, which would attack him repeatedly 
in the course of the day, and gave him a feeling as if 
something invisible were near him; at the same 
time the doors of her cottage opened and shut with- 
out any visible cause ; there was an unaccountable 
sound of feet, and things were flung at her by an un- 
seen hand. The husband confirmed all the wife 
said; adding, that he was often awakened in the 
night by something touching him, and pulling the 

bed-clothes. I sent him to Mrs. H , and, whilst 

he was speaking to her, he suddenly exclaimed — 
" There now, it's coming on me again ! " and, at 
the same moment, she saw standing beside him the 
spectre of a woman in an antique but distinguished 
attire* She turned her head from the spectre, and,, 



OCCURRENCES AT WEINSBERG. 311 

when she looked again, it was gone. Upon this she 
inquired of the man if he had ever seen a ghost ; to 
which he answered, never but in his fifteenth year, 
as he was passing with an old man through the forest 
of Diembach, " there we saw a lady standing beside 
a thing like a chest, near a young oak ; we both saw 
her distinctly beckon to us, but, whilst we were 
silently advancing towards her, she disappeared, 
and, at the same time, we heard a noise like a heavy 
blow on the chest." This man had not the slightest 
acquaintance with the boy, who, at an interval of 
several years, had apparently seen the same figure. 



THIRD FACT. 



In February 1829, a robust, active, cheerful- 
looking woman, from Grossgartach, by name Her- 
linger, wife to the host of the Eagle Inn, came to 

request the advice of Mrs. H , saying, that one 

night in the year 1818, being in bed, sujffering neither 
from sorrow nor sickness, and thinking of nothing 
less than spectres, she was suddenly awakened by a 
feeling of oppression, and saw a male figure, without 
a head, leaning over her, and, at the same time, dis- 
tinctly heard the words — " Love ! love ! release me ! " 
She exclaimed with horror — " No, no, that I cannot," 
and leapt out of the bed, awakening her husband ; 
but, before she could shew him the spectre, it had 
vanished. Having mentioned the circumstance to 
her father in the morning, he reproved her for not 
having complied with the spectre's request ; and, to 



312 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

satisfy him^ she promised that, if it appeared again, 
she would declare herself ready to do what was re- 
quired. A few nights afterwards it reappeared, 
saying — " Love, now fulfil your promise ! " But 
her fear being augmented by perceiving that the ap- 
parition was aware of the promise-, she again refused. 

From this time the spectre persecuted her in va- 
rious ways, being visible only to herself, but audible 
to others, till, her health being affected, they were 
induced to quit their residence and seek another; 
but the change brought them no relief. Once, as if 
in a dream, the spectre had bidden her dig in a par- 
ticular spot in her stable, and that she would there 
find a token of the truth ; she did so, and found, 
some feet below the surface, a hollow iron ball, 
which seemed to have been split with gunpowder. 
Her father had often entreated her to converse with 
the spectre, but, in spite of her resolutions to com- 
ply, she had never been able to do it. To appreci- 
ate the candour and simplicity with which this story 
was related, it should be heard from the lips of the 
woman herself — which, indeed^ those who desire it 
may yet do. 

Mrs. H gave her a written amulet, with di- 
rections how to use it ; and, from that time to this, 
(1830,) nothing has been seen by her, nor heard by 
others, of the apparition. It seemed probable that 
the iron ball may have been connected with the 
headless state of the spectre. The individual may 
have lost his head by a bombshell, or grenade, in 
the disturbances or peasant wars in which Grossgar- 



OCCURRENCES AT WEINSBERG. 313 

tach was concerned, and been suddenly translated to 
the world of spirits, burdened by some earthly care. 



FOURTH FACT. 



The following circumstance occurred two years 

after the death of Mrs. H : — At Ammerts- 

weiler, five hours from Weinsberg, lives a citizen 
called Leonard Sammet, a man of forty-three 
years of age, in robust health, neither a somnambule 
nor a hypocrite — rather, indeed^ of an austere nature 
than otherwise^ and totally unacquainted with me or 
the Seherin of Prevorst. 

On the 11th October 1828, he lost his wife ; and, 
although he may have felt some regret, it appears 
that he did not very eagerly wish her back again, 
and his tears were soon dried. The High Bailiff, 
von Wolf, of this place received the following his- 
tory from his own lips, in the presence of several 
witnesses. 

'^ On the 1st September 1829, a year after the 
death of my wife, my little boy, aged seven years, 
happening to step out of bed between eleven and 
twelve o'clock, he saw a white figure, whom he re- 
cognized as his mother. The child said nothing, but 
leapt into bed to me, and hid his head under the 
clothes. I gaw the spectre at the same moment, 
but I said nothing to the child, nor did I speak of it 
till the following morning, when I asked him the 
cause of his alarm, and he told me what he had seen. 
From that period the apparition visits us every 



314 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

nighty and is not only visible to my boy, but also to 
my youngest child, who, although it cannot yet 
speak, makes known by gestures what it sees. I 
perfectly recognize the spectre to be that of my wife ; 
the face emits a light that illuminates every thing 
in the room, but the rest of the figure appears only 
as a pillar of grey vapour. She walks about the 
room, bends over me and the children, often remain- 
ing till morning ; but she is silent, and makes no 
sign whatever. By the advice of the minister, I 
once asked her what I could do to give her rest, but 
she looked at me without making any answer. If I 
were not strong and fearless, I should have never 
been able to support these six weeks of distress and 
sleeplessness." The witnesses described the man as 
a very healthy, industrious, temperate, honest man. 

Through the recommendation of the High BailiflP, 
this person afterwards came to me for advice. I 
could not discover the slightest traces of indisposi- 
tion about him ; on the contrary, he appeared to me 
to be perfectly sound, both in body and mind. 

He told me, in addition to the above particulars, 
that he and his wife had lived peaceably enough to- 
gether, although she was extremely passionate. She 
was frequently indisposed, and would then tell him 
to " Look to it, for she should soon die." To which 
he, more in jest than earnest, would answer, " What 
matter ? there are plenty of wives to be had with a 
hundred florins ; " which was the dower she had 
brought him. 

^' This used to make her very angry," continued 



OCCURRENCES AT WEINSBERG. 315 

he, " and I am very sorry now that I ever said it ; 
and sometimes she told me, that if I married again, 
unless it was with one of her own sisters, that she 
would ^o to the devil if she did not haunt me. But 
not believing in the possibility of such an apparition, 
I had never thought of this threat till after she had 
appeared to me, and I began to question myself as 
to what could disturb her — then I remembered it ; 
and it is true that I have lately entertained thoughts 
of marriage, and it is not with one of my sisters-in- 
law." 

I gave him an amulet, that the Seherin had 
used on a similar occasion-^according to some holy 
persons, " a devilish amulet, with an impious word 
in it, which the sinful Seeress had prescribed in her 
delirium." He left me, not believing in its efficacy ; 
and as I heard nothing of him for several weeks, 
I wrote to the mayor of the place he inhabited, to 
inquire how he was going on. From him I received 
the following answer : — 

^' The first three nights that Sammett wore the 
amulet, his wife appeared to him ; then she discon- 
tinued her visits for three more. He then went to 
confession. After that, she appeared once to him 
and the children ; and from that time she has been 
seen no more. He is extremely pleased, and very 
thankful to you. 

" Oelhaf of Meinhardt, Mat/or" 



316 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST* 



SOME PACTS RELATING TO WEINSBERG. 

There is a house at Weinsberg, that, some thirty 
years ago, was inhabited by a vine-dresser, named 
Bayer ; it had formerly been used as a wine-press, 
but no traces of this purpose now exist. For a space 
of forty or fifty years, there has been heard nightly 
in this house, between the months of December and 
February, sounds, like those made by coopers and 
wine-pressers ; and they were not only audible to 
the inhabitants of the house, but to the whole neigh- 
bourhood. And what is most remarkable, is, that 
the louder these sounds are, the finer does the 
vintage prove ; insomuch, that a neighbour of the 
vine-dresser s — the late common-councilman Mufi* — 
founded his speculations on this conviction, and 
thereby made his fortune. Bayer, who had married 
a daughter of the last possessor of the house, was 
bent on discovering the cause of the noise ; and 
frequently went, armed with a hatchet, through all 
the places whence it seemed to proceed, but he could 
never find any means of accounting for it ; and his 
father-in-law was wont to say to him, " Leave it 
alone ; it has been longer here than we have/' 

Frequently, too, the door opened, somebody ap- 
peared to enter, and there was a sound of shuflling^ 
feet in the room. This, however, has only hap- 
pened once to the present inhabitant, when he was 



OCCURRENCES AT WEINSBERG. 317 

sleeping in the upper storey. His door opened — 
shuffling feet approached him, and then retired — but 
he saw nothing. So, if one sits up in bed, the bet- 
ter to observe — or the neighbours rush out — or a 
person passes the door, the noises cease ; but only to 
recommence the moment afterwards. This is a fact, 
to which numerous witnesses can be produced. 

That those noises should be persisted in for forty 
years, by the various persons who have dwelt in 
this house, nobody can believe ; besides, they are 
poor vine-dressers, who carry on no trade in wine, 
and could have no interest in doing it. If any one 
imagines that the thing was contrived by Councillor 
Muff, for his own particular ends — a suggestion that 
no one on the spot would entertain for a moment — 
it must be remembered that the noises were heard 
long before he resided in that part of the country ; 
and are still heard, now that he is dead. Besides, 
all his neighbours were aware, how, during those 
months, he used to watch whole nights at the win- 
dow, for the purpose of regulating his speculations. 
He made no secret of the thing ; others might have 
followed his example, if they would ; but they only 
laughed at him, whilst he grew rich. 

He died ; but the wealth which he had accumu- 
lated, by the aid of the inhabitants of the mid- 
region, could not defend him from becoming one of 
them himself. He was one of those who came from 

the land of shadows, to entreat Mrs. H 's prayers. 

She was never ac(][uainted with him. 

In the winter months of 1830 and 1831, these 



318 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

noises were little heard, as I at the time informed 
several of my friends ; and accordingly, the vintages 
of those years were very indifferent. 



In the council -house at Weinsberg there is a 
chamber, which is used as a prison, in which men, 
who have been confined at different periods, of va- 
rious characters, and altogether unknown to each 
other, affirm, that unaccountable things are heard 
and felt. Some have been so affected, as to become 
ill ; whilst others, on the contrary, have perceived 
nothing extraordinary. The council-house is unin- 
habited, and disjoined from any other building. 
Several of the prisoners, after being released, have 
made known these disturbances to the officials — 
especially a stout healthy tradesman, who had cer- 
tainly never heard a word on the subject. The 
same thing occurred in regard to a ganiekeeper, who 
had previously been a soldier, and who had little 
faith in such matters. The particulars he related, 
in the substance of which they all agree, are as fol- 
lows : — 

'' The first night I slept there, I was suddenly 
awakened as the clock struck one, and I heard what 
appeared to be the footsteps of a man close to my 
bed. They were not overhead, but on the same 
floor. (As we have observed no one resides in the 
house.) The feet shuffled, as if the shoes were loose. 
However, though surprised at the occurrence, I went 
to sleep again, and was no more disturbed. On the 
following night I was awakened, at the same hour, 



OCCURRENCES AT WEINSBERG. 319 

by a feeling of oppression and annoyance ; but heard 
nothing, and went to sleep again. On the third 
night, I was again awakened at one o'clock — and, 
what was incomprehensible to me, although the night 
was wet, it was quite light — and being wide awake^ 
I distinctly saw a tall shade bending over me, and 
felt it breathe on me three times. At the same 
time, the bed- quilt was pulled half off, so that I 
caught at it to keep it fast ; and there was a report, 
as if my bedstead were cracking asunder, whilst I 
felt a shock from beneath, that positively shook me. 
I jumped up, and examined the bedstead ; but it 
was quite uninjured, and I could discover nothing/' 

In consequence of a scarcity of room in the other 
prisons, a very courageous fellow from Mergentheim 
— a place at a considerable distance from this — was, 
in the month of June 1829, lodged in this apart- 
ment. Most assuredly, he knew nothing of what 
had been reported about the place ; but having spent 
some weeks there, he related what follows : — 

" Whilst inhabiting this chamber, I was frequently 
awakened at one o'clock, by a weight falling on me 
like a sack, so that I could scarcely breathe. Once 
my bedstead was lifted up and shaken, perceptibly 
both to my ears and sensations. But in the morning, 
when I examined it, I could not discover any signs 
of its having been moved. The quilt was frequently 
dragged quite to a distance from the bed ; and some- 
times I saw the figure of a man going about the 
room, with a bright star upon his breast, about as 
large as my hand. It was like a shadow. These 



320 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

things did not happen every night; sometimes I 
passed three or four without any disturbance." 

This man requested to be removed to another 
prison^ even though he were placed in much closer 
confinement. His wish was complied with, and an- 
other was put in his place, who was equally a stranger 
to the circumstances. Three nights he passed with- 
out any disturbance ; but on the next, being quite 
awake, he felt all at once a weight upon his breast, 
like a sack, and some one seemed to blow in his ear. 
The same thing frequently occurred afterwards. The 
quilt was also often drawn off the bed, and when he 
attempted to catch at it, he found himself unable to 
move his arms. 



George Widemann relates a story concerning 
Weinsberg, in his Calendar^ which Cousins repeats 
in his Swabian Chronicle : — 

" Several years before the castle of Weinsberg 
was destroyed, in the peasant war of 1825, a gover- 
nor of that place had murdered his servant. One 
Sunday evening, as he was praying in the chapel of 
the castle, he fancied he saw an animal creep out of 
the wainscot, and hide itself in a hole in the ground ; 
but, on examination, he could find no hole in which 
it could possibly have taken refuge. He was sur- 
prised, but resumed his prayers. Then he felt a 
warm breath blowing on him, and alarmed, he fled 
from the chapel. He felt the breath again as he 
went, and perceived it proceeded from a dark spectre ; 
whereupon he fell ill. In the meantime, the spirit 



JOURNAL OF THE SEERESS. 32 1 

continued to make itself manifest, by throwing, 
knocking, &c., creating great alarm amongst the 
people ; whilst in the town the thing wa« laughed 
at^ and looked upon as a fable. But when the go- 
vernor appointed watchmen to watch the castle by 
night, they were disturbed by the spirit in the same 
manner ; and at length the annojrance extended to 
the guards on the town-wall. Then the people of 
Weinsberg held a fast, and walked barefoot to the 
church of St. Mary at Heilbronn, in hopes of ap- 
peasing this unhappy spirit ; but they were unsuc- 
€essful — not till the governor died did it find repose. 
After that event, it was never seen nor heard again." 



A FACT EXTRACTED PROM THE JOURNAL OF THE SEERESS. 

Mrs. H kept a journal for some weeks whilst 

she was in Weinsberg, which she reserved entirely 
for herself, and allowed nobody to see. As she grew 
weaker, she was unable to continue it ; and I got 
possession of the papers unknown to her. In order 
to exhibit the state of her mind, and to prove that 
the desire to return to her home and husband was 
her ruling feeling — a point on which she has been 
much misunderstood — as well as to shew her entire 
conviction of the reality of the apparitions, I will 
extract the following passage, which she never in- 
tended should meet any eye but her own *-^ 

X 



B }:■' 26fh December JS2=T^Speechless paper 1 to thee 
ll fly for refuge! How gladly I would impart my 
experiences, and the feelings of my soul, to a friend 
to whom I could open my heart, and disclose my 
innermost thoughts — -one whose soul was in harmony 
l^ith mine, aiid who could afford me comfort and 
Gonsdlation under my sufferings ! Is it my fault 
that I have no such friend? Is it that I ani too 
timid, or that I place too little cQ|ifidei]i<5!^;gn the 
friends I have ? I do not think this is natural to 
me; but I am repelled, by finding that I am so sel- 
dom understood, and so often misinterpreted. But 
^ji^. is my joy to feel that there is one who see&nie, 
^^ipid knows me; his 1 am^_and; wilLreiiai 
^^^er in heaven I qg elgoeg aodW .sin qlail im, 
^^ ^'Jtk D^^^m^^r.— To -day my conviction is again 
confirmed that we livo in a transitory, imperfect 
world ; and that we can rely on nothing ihsi^ lives 
and weaves in it ; but must put our trust only in 
that which we do not see— namely, the Word, the 
,^|r§^,; ^Q4i#u^9^^1 ,S^*^ w By holding fast to this, one 
|is enabled to support the abandonment in which I 
iUid myself, and the separation from all I love; and 

l>Mmilji%#f ^Wr^l^ffiiyM^^I^^ to the spirit. 
The body indeed becomes weaker^ — ^especially mine, 
which is already so weak. Such a friend were in-- 

Jf ed a comfo^t^^jj^lj^gj^japuld call the friend 
of my soul, and to whom I could communjgfj^^ali 

i20il*SiB4^ilA^ ^ visit from, a yi^fj; disquieting ap- 

'?■-.. .ebM ^■— ::0m oi baiijiDDa ^jsail ^.mv?oIIo} ^Ai biw 



parition, which concertis K----- ; for it is tfiat of a 
yelatioi; of his. This spirit, who was a mother, (I 

ikBc^nbeJ- Mj^n alive,) wishes me, through K ^ 

"^o waTn her ehiWren that there is a future life ; and 
tliat if they do not turn to their Redeemer, they #ili 

' iaiste^ Wen m^re ' thian she does/ the bitterne^ of 
de^hv So says this spirit. What shall I da? 
<yod >assist m^ to do right ! 

3ot'fi28^iiiL4,aiSt night the spectre came agaiiii/ to 
fetend me what I should do. - ' ' ^^ ^ - ^ 
^ -" 2M.— To-day I seemed ^^fe^^hMrftily but to- 

^^rds^*^t€^ihg-I \ms sei %^Mi % fearful lioine- 
^kness. If this continue, my bealth will become 
T^o'rser I must seek comfort in myself, for nobody 
can help me. When people speak to me as they do 
in the world, I only grow sadder. Would I could 
always cling to my Bedeemei^ but I am timid and 

-^Jul.^^^ ^ufdiou no ^ioi auo aw i,Bdi bnB ibliow 

m ^^ The Bpirit came again at eleven o'clock to-day, 
-'fiid said, with a threatening aspect, ' Will you not 
db whiatt I desire V I answered, ^ I cannot; go to 
K^' yourself/ As I said this, it disappeared. I 

am perplexed what to do-^people will not believe. 
IHl the name of God they may, for I aan convinced 
it is true ; but this spirit-seeing costs me much 

pain. (Mrs. H here alluded to my frequent re- 

'^%aches, and arguments against the validity of the 
^^ectres.) '--"^ " -^ ' ^ ^ -'''^'" "'^ ^'-^ .---^^^ X- ^ 

*' 1st January/ 1828. — I passed thifi-'^ajf-klbhe 
MtH my old waiting woman, mostly in reflection; 
and the following ideas occurred to me : — ^ Man, set 



324 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

thy house in order, for thou must die/ AVhereon it 
struck me, that we should do this daily, keeping the 
image of death ever before us. At half-past eleven^ 
that spirit came^ and said, ' How long will you 
withhold me from my rest V I appeased it by say- 
ing, I would obey it ; but when, heaven knows. I 
hope it will come no more. 

'•26? January/. — Last night, the spirit returned 
with its usual request. I promised to do its bidding 
the next day ; and it left me cheerfully. But in the 
morning, my heart failed me ; I was sad, and wished 
myself home. He who alone knows me, and my 
sufferings, grant this ! 

" 5tk January, — I have not slept, from bodily 
weakness and affliction. I wept nearly all night. 
How should I recover my health ? At one o'clock 
came that bright form that has often appeared to 
me before, like a consoling angel > it said, ' Be calm ; 
by to-morrow evening things will be better with you. 
Help approaches.' It said other things too, which I 
treasure in my heart. 

'' ^th, — I have been better to-day, with the excep- 
tion of my home -sickness. Just when that was at 
the worst, in came my husband, and my heart grew 
light at once. I thought of the assurance of the 
bright form, that the evening would bring me com- 
fort. 

" ^th, — This has been a tolerably comfortable day, 
God be thanked ! for my husband remained with 
me, and shared the burden of my pains and afflictions. 

" 8^A. — I have not slept all night for spasms. 



CONCLUSION. 325 

tliinking of my husband's approaching departure. 
At mid-day he left me, and I am again alone.. 
Father in heaven ! witness my tears, and give me 
strength to support my troubles. Grant me patience 
to bear the burden thou hast laid upon me, for thou 
alone know est me ! Mankind will not understand 
me.'* 



With regard to the request of the spectre above 

mentioned^ which occasioned Mrs. H so much 

anxiety, it is a remarkable fact, that shortly after- 
wards a circumstance occurred to one of the children 
of this spirit, which evinced his want of trust in 
God ; whilst, at the same time, there was so incom- 
prehensible an instance of the preservation of life, 
that it could hardly f^il to produce belief in the 
existence of a superintending Providence. 



CONCLUSION TO THESE FACTS. 

And thus, dear reader, I have given you these 
facts, without any addition, as I received them ; and 
partly shared the experience of them — I believe, not 
in vain, as regards myself — and I trust they may 
serve to awaken others who yet sleep. By different 
people, they may be differently viewed. I dispute 
nobody's views on the subject ; I only require that 
they do not malign me, and those who accept them 
as I do. That we are immortal, and that there is 



3W THE SEEBBMOQJ^ FREVORSr. 

afature state, iiod©H)^tiSififool; can* dosfet^ij^ 
lias all the wisdoiB of the world hitherto dis^dvl^t^d! 
in regard to it ? '' In my father's house there are 
many mansions ;'V and innumerable facts testify^ tbabt 
amongst these, some are so near us, tjbat tbmr^finhy^-: 
bitants are diffused amongst us. Let people inquire. 
But the news is unwelcome; and the multitude— : 
especially the strong-minded — (les esprits forts)— 2i£Q: 
too glad to set it all aside as a delusion of the senses. 
And this world of spirits, too, is least of all what 
the wise world would figure it, but rather what the 
simplicity of the simple has long portrayed it ; and 
let reason banisK these ideas as it will, the still mid?- 
night hour, and the silent chamber of death, yet 'te^l 
witness to their truth. Oh! if mankind would be 
honest in this respect, and put away worldly wisdQni 
and worldly shame/how many opponents of the^ 
humble pages would become their supporters and 
defenders ! 

Finally, what we have seen, heard, felt, and by 
proof established, no reasoning shall oTerthrow; and 
although we are discreet enough, to pre^s our belief 
oil iMKanaB^--and> least of all, to adventure it in the 
shape of nkedical science^ — the moral and ehristiau 
tendency of this narration we must boldly :coi^tend 
to; : We believe in tte inn^^life jogf th«aS0ul,akn4ia 
an intuitive faculty of ghost-seeing; both of wbi^JI^ 
in our ordinary condition, are suppressed or shut ^; 
but which, in extraordinary cases, are revealed fitoa 
short time, to be again long concealed. With re^ 
spect to the apparitions themselye^^ the public may 



heUhve, that ^^okmm afcolnikitif (flfebelief^^^a seemttbijt 
cjotild be in theif^fefciiMgflis^^ffedtPofdifi^iiw^ 
td proof. We had, perhaps, less difficulty maltedngf 
ottr views, from the conviction, that there are many? 
arguments in favour of the existence of a world ol 
spirits ; espeei^-llj that drawn from the extreme dif- 
ference between th^er moral and physical laws -^-a 
diierence that cannot appear in its full force till 
after dearth. When we cast off our bones and flesb^ 
and all sensible forms— and with them their physical 
properties^the indestructible moral law remains in 
the spirit and soul^ and their incorporeal forms ; and 
whait will be the consequences of such a condition^ 
Let us imagine a man who, instead of exercising his 
iqjFirit 4n^ the tfutibs and mandates of religion and 
nioralifyv has given up his soul to corrupt inclinai 
tiotiis, erroneous principles, and mistaken projects, 
the delusive fabrics of his intelleet----whQy by means 
of his wishes, desires for honour, fame, and profit^ jis 
8^ta(3hed.4o the earth by a thousand roots---wSat, 
according to the moral law, will be the chara>cter of 
his soul after death ? Clearly that which he has 
himself made it. It will be a creature ai:tached to 
the world, and destitute ef religion and truth ; whe 
now, for the first time, freed from his corporeal foria; 
and his ieonnexions with nature, perceives in himself 
the insignificance and nullity of all his former think- 
ii|g, feeling, willing, and doing, l The transition ^ 
«mjh a creature, from the corporeal t0 the incojpor^ 
form, is no great step, since Jie is still chained to the 
eai^tk by^all the pwjpensities of liis:s<»2L ^ . '-- 



328 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

Let us add to this, some residuary influence from 
the teaching of the life, or nerve-spirit — which 
fashioned during existence the immaterial form of 
that beautiful life between body and soul, and re- 
mains identified with the latter after death — and 
the probability of a physical connexion between 
creatures of this low grade and the earth, becomes 
very great ; although they dwell in a sphere which 
is only perceptible to persons under such abnormal 
conditions of body, soul, and spirit, as we see ex- 
hibited in the case of the Seherin. Let us add to 
this again the force of fact — the indisputable evi- 
dence of eyes and ears — the highest that history is 
capable of adducing — and the cry raised by the so- 
called heroes of enlightenment becomes utterly with- 
out meaning or signification. 

He who is incapable of feeling the difference be- 
tween the moral and physical laws, will also be 
unable to enlarge his views, so as to comprehend how 
these will appear after death. Such an one stands 
in the flesh before a thick curtain, which he cannot 
blow aside ; and, like all empirics, concludes, that 
what is unseen and unheard is also non-existent; 
although the closest deductions shew, that the insen- 
sible forms are as real as the sensible. 

Could we^ whilst on earth, behold the naked soul^, 
freed from its fleshly husk — and so obtain a view of 
its interior condition — we should be as much disposed 
to laugh at the absurdities it would present, as to 
shudder at the horrors. But by a most merciful law^ 
these inconsistent souls are hidden from each other 



CONCLUSION. 329 

by the husk or mantle which nature has bestowed 
upon each ; whereby we may all easily and freely 
associate, and carry on life together. 

But it is otherwise after death when this mantle 
falls off; for then do moral inconsistencies become 
symbolized, and that in a mode adapted to the con- 
dition of the soul ; and it is seen at once of what 
manner of spirit this creature is the offspring. The 
contrast makes itself principally manifest between 
beauty and light, on the one hand, and deformity 
and darkness on the other ; whilst the nerve-spirit 
imitates, after deaths the plastic type that existed 
during life. 



330 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

3£ro ^0 dfiemom eili woni ot biBd be wtl '^— sjlijwa 

During the first week of Mrs. H- & i^esideilce 
at Lowenstein, (whether she had returned,) she was 
sieiifeible of another revolution in her sun--spheres, 
whereby the freedom of her soul was again lost and 
destroyed, and she fell into a condition that resembled 
that of a dying person. Her respiratory organs 
#ere unequal to encounter the sharp mountain air, 
kx different from that she had been lately accustomed 
fe^^and to this was added the prejudicial effect of the 
smoke and vapours from the workshops and vitriol 
niainufactories in the neighbourhood. Yainly she 
Wished herself back in the valley she had quitt^H^ 
she was now too much debilitated to support the 
journey. She had a consuming and unremitting 
ffever ; her difficulty of swallowing was so great, thaft 
she scarcely ate anything, and she was frequently 
obliged to cool her burning thirst by bathing her 
tSfigue with water. All this might have been fordl- 
seen. Yainly I had opposed the change, but it wsS 
persisted in, in spite of my representations. She had 
ferself foretold her fate in her magnetic dream oh 
the 2d of May, of which dream it is to be remarked, 
contrary to all preceding instances, she had no recol- 
fiction— a naerciful exception, since in it she leaa^ht 
tliat she was soon to wake no more. Yet, she had 
some presentiment, for she frequently said, when 



DEATH OF THE SEERESS. 331 

awake — " It is hard to know the moment of one's 
own death/' 

Three ireeks before her decease, she had three 
times a second-sight, which also indicated the ap- 
proaching catastrophe. There appeared to her a 
benign female figure, taller than herself, enveloped 
in black; she saw only the bust; the rest of th^ 
form was also wrapt in black, and stood in an ojpen 
coffin, beside it was a white cross. The apparition 
beckoned to her, and she felt its cold breath. She 
said it was not a spirit, but a portentous second^ 
sight; and well she knew what it foreboded. ^1^ 
however, interpreted the vision differently, fo^ J 
b^lieved^ her death yet distant, having so often se^q 
her revive from the very verge of extinction. ^ 

Three days before she died, she raised three of J^er^ 
fingers as if taking an oath, and swore that her li|^ 
would scarcely endure three days longer. She 
wished to die, but, like most people, dreaded the 
aguish that she expected would attei^^^fiie,^^^ 
struggle. Mauy a time she had been in that mortal 
agony; and inexpressible was the suffering of this 
poor creature from thus continually dying, and yet 
not beinff able to dio. ,^,^.,. 

i^.^ Contrary to my expectations, her magnetip cojit 
^i^^;(3ptinued, and even increased, as her fever 
augmented. She told me that two spectres having 
shortly before been with her, they had answered her 
inquiry of why they came„ by saying—'' You are 
already of us;" and she felt herself that she was 
more than ever in relation with the^sgiritual world. 



332 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

In one of her last days she told me, that^ during her 
fever ^ she often saw visions ; all sorts of forms 
passed before her eyes^ hut it was impossible to ex- 
press how entirely different these occular illusions 
were to the real discerning of spirits ; and she only 
wished other people were in a condition to compare 
these two kinds of perception with one another^ 
both of which were equally distinct from our ordin- 
ary perception^ and also from that of the second-sight. 
Another circumstance that convinced me of the 
truth of her revelations was, that, at my last visit, 
when she was fully aware of her approaching end, 
she told me, in conJBdence^ that her deceased father 
had lately been with her ; and that, having asked 
him why, since he had been dead a year, she had not 
seen him before, he answered that it had not been in 
his power to reveal himself to her earlier. It will 
be remembered that;, eight months after his death, he 
had appeared to her sister and the attendant, whilst 
she had only seen him in a dream. When I then 
expressed my surprise at her not seeing him, she 
seemed hurt at my expecting it, apparently because 
her filial affection led her to believe him in a higher 
state ; and now that he did come, it was evidently 
contrary to her wishes and expectations. 

At a later period, when she was incapable of any 
connected discourse, she was very desirous of com- 
municating some revelations of her father respecting 
the world of spirits, as well as of speaking farther of 
her sun-sphere and her inner reckoning, but she was 
unequal to it. 



DEATH OF THE SEERESS. 333 

On the 5ih. of August 1829, she became delirious, 
though she had still magnetic and lucid intervals. 
She was in a very pious state of mind^ and requested 
them to sing hymns to her. She often called loudly 
for me, though I was absent at the time ; and once, 
when she appeared dead, some one having uttered 
my name, she started into life again, and seemed 
unable to die — the magnetic relation between us 
being not yet broken. She was, indeed, susceptible 
to magnetic influences to the last ; for, when she was 
already cold, and her jaws stiff, her mother having 
made three passes over her face, she lifted her eye- 
lids and moved her lips. At ten o'clock, her sister 
saw a tall bright form enter the chamber, and, at the 
same instant, the dying woman uttered a loud cry of" 
joy ; her spirit seemed then to be set free. After a 
short interval, her soul also departed, leaving behind 
it a totally irrecognizable husk — not a single trace of 
her former features remaining. During her life, her 
countenance was of that sort that is borrowed wholly 
from the spirit within ; for which reason, though 
many attempts were made, no artist succeeded in 
transmitting her features to the canvass. It is, 
therefore, not surprising that, when the spirit had 
departed, the face should no longer be the same. 

In the night succeeding her death — of which I had 
not the least idea — I saw her in a dream, with two 
other female forms, and apparently perfectly re- 
covered. 

On the 7th, the post mortem examination took 



334 THE SEERESS OF PREVORST. 

place, conducted by Dr. Oif, of Lowenstein. The 
body was found wasted to a skeleton ; there was 
considerable induration of the mesenteric glands, the 
liver was diseased, and there was a large stone in 

the gall-bladder — a thing Mrs. H had often 

averred during life. There was inflammation of the 
heart and its vessels, and also of the respiratory 
organs, probably in consequence of her removal to 
the mountain air, which these delicate tissues were 
no longer able to encounter. Dr. Off found the skull 
remarkably well formed, and the brain, in all its 
parts so sound and healthy, that he declared that he 
had never, in all his experience, met with one more 
perfect ; neither in the spinal marrow — every pro- 
cess of which was exa]3iin^---nprin the nerves of the 
breast, or abdominal region, was the slightest trace 
of disease discovered. 

On the 8th, the remains x)f this poor sufferer were 
deposited in the romantic churchyard of Lowenstein, 
where the bodies of her grandfather, the worthy 
Schmidgall, and of his wife, whom she had recognized 
as her protecting spirit, had already found their rest. 

It is a fact, that, after her death, Mrs. H 

appeared seven times to her eldest sister — a very 
truthful and upright person — under such peculiar 
circumstances, as well warranted the interference of 
a friendly spirit ; but, as this remarkable history is 
connected with family affairs, the time is not yet 
arrived when the particulars can with propriety be 
disclosed. 



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APPENDIX. 



We here subjoin a specimen of the Seherin's verses, 
which, although not poetical in the original, we freely 
admit are still less so in our translation. 

Oh ! Father, thou only knowest my hearty 

And whether I deceive — 
Whether the secrets I impart 

Are truths, or lies I weave. 

Alas ! although from thee I hold 
The dreadful power to unfold 

The secrets of the grave ; 
Gladly would I that gift resign, 
And close this inner-eye of mine — 
But not my will be done, but thine. 



^. 



338 APPENDIX. 



LINES 

COMPOSED IMMEDIATELY BEFORE HER DEATH. 



Farewell ! dear friends ! farewell ! 
Thanks for your love and tending 
Of the weary life now ending — 

Farewell ! farewell ! 

And shall I call ye friends, 
Sent for the wisest ends. 
To aggravate my woes ? 
Yes, friends no less than those — 
Farewell ! farewell ! 

Farewell to all I love ! 
Whilst my spirit floats above. 
My body '11 here remain 
To witness my life of pain* — 
Farewell ! farewell ! 

Grieve not that I'm at rest ! 
Farewell all I love best ! 
Soon we shall meet again 
Where dwells no grief nor pain — 
Farewell ! farewell ! 

* The Seherin here refers to a wish she had expressed that he!~ 
body should be opened. 



LB Mr '22 



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